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BX  9183  .355    1901  c.l 
Smith,  Egbert  W.  1862-1944 
The  creed  of  Presbyterians 


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copy   JL 


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THE 


APR  25  1914 


CREED  OF  PRESBYTERIANS 


BY 

Rev.  EGBERT  WATSON  SMITH,  D.D. 


(THIRTY-NINTH  THOUSAND.) 


NEW  YORK 

THE  BAKER  AND  TAYLOR  COMPANY 

33-37  East  Seventeenth  Street 
Union  Square,  North 


<b 


fU 


Copyright,  1901, 

BY 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  CO. 


The  Greenwich  Printing  Co. 

186-IQ0  W.  4th  St. 

New  York 


TO 

THE    MEMORY    OF    MY    FATHER, 

(f  lie  Beta.  %  ^enrp  ;$>mit!),  5B.55., 

FROM    WHOSE    LIPS    I    LEARNED 

AND    IN    WHOSE    LIFE    I    BEHELB 

THE    BEAUTY    AND    POWER 

OF    CALVINISM, 

I   DEDICATE   THIS    BOOK. 


CONTENTS 


PAGV 

I.     The  Creed  Formulated  ll 


n.  The  Creed  Tested  bv  its  Fruits                  43 

III.  The  Creed  Tested  by  its  Fruits — Contd.  119 

IV.  The  Creed  Illustrated  157 
V.  The  Creed  Catholic                                      189 


PREFACE 

This  is  not  another  essay  on  "  The  Five 
Points."  Such  treatises  have  their  place 
and  value,  but  they  present  our  system,  and 
only  the  anti-Arminian  part  of  it  at  that,  in 
its  bones.  They  furnish  no  adequate  con- 
ception of  that  divinely  vital  and  exuber- 
ant Calvinism,  the  creator  of  the  modern 
world,  the  mother  of  heroes,  saints  and 
martyrs  in  number  without  number,  which 
history,  judging  the  tree  by  its  fruits, 
crowns  as  the  greatest  creed  of  Christen- 
dom. 

This  historic  faith  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  has  in  recent  years  been  assailed 
with  the  most  searching  criticism,  the  most 
merciless  caricature,  the  most  vivid  and 
eloquent  abuse.  That  in  this  and  every 
other  conflict  it  will  come  off  more  than 
conqueror,  we  have  no  shadow  of  doubt. 

But  these  assaults  have  not  been  without 
effect.  The  popular  style  in  which  they 
have  been  urged,  the  air  of  supercilious  and 
vii 


PREFACE 

criumphant  certitude  by  which  they  have 
been  characterized,  the  prominence  and 
universal  currency  given  them  by  the  secu- 
lar press,  have  produced  among  the  Pres- 
byterian rank  and  file,  vv^ho  have  neither 
time  nor  facilities  for  special  investigation, 
a  vague  but  v^idespread  feeling  of  uneasi- 
ness and  apprehension. 

For  them  this  book  is  v^ritten;  to  answer 
their  questions,  to  fortify  their  faith,  to  arm 
them  with  facts.  It  will  be  of  possible 
service  to  all  who  desire  a  general  knowl- 
edge of  the  nature,  history  and  sanctions 
of  the  Presbyterian  creed.  The  author  even 
ventures  to  hope  that  some  of  our  ministers 
may  find  here  material  with  which  to  build 
up  and  defend  the  walls  of  our  beloved 
Zion. 

The  reader  who  illustrates  the  persever- 
ance of  the  saints  by  perusing  this  book 
to  its  close,  will  be  able,  I  trust,  to  answer 
that  question  which  for  nearly  four  cen- 
turies has  contributed  so  greatly  to  the 
gayety  of  ecclesiastical  debate,  "  Is  Calvin- 
ism dead?  " 

The  Author. 

Greensboro,  N.  C,  April,  1901. 
viii 


I 

THE  CREED   FORMULATED 


Prove  all  things;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good.' 

I  Thess.  5:  21. 


THE  CREED  FORMULATED 

The  Presbyterian  Church  has  been  the  The  martyr 
martyr  Church  of  history.    Though  sword  ^^^^<^'^- 
ana  fagot  are  laid  aside,  she  maintains  her 
martyr  pre-eminence  by  continuing  to  elicit 
a   peculiar   hostility.      In   popular  novels, 
sensational  sermons,  and  the  secular  press 
she  is  made  the  target  of  attack.     As  an 
acute    observer    has    truly    said,    "  Every  v 
heresy  in  doctrine  or  morals  works  itself 
first  or  last  into  a  frenzy  against  Calvinism.'* 

The  persistence  of  these  attacks  renders  The  need  of 
it  important  that  Presbyterians  should  in-  ^^^  '^^''"''• 
form  themselves  of  the  scriptural  warrant 
and  splendid  history  ^  of  that  great  system 

^  "  We  love  you  for  your  glorious  history."    Greet- 
II 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

of  doctrine  held  by  their  Church,  that 
they  may  be  able  to  vindicate  God's  truth 
against  error  and  give  a  reason  for  the  faith 
that  is  in  them.  While  we  are  not  the  only 
ecclesiastical  body  that  holds  this  system, 
yet  none  will  deny  that  friends  and  foes 
alike  award  to  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as 
its  wreath  of  thorns,  or  its  diadem  of  glory, 
the  distinction  of  being  the  world's  historic 
and  leading  representative  of  the  creed  of 
Calvinism.  In  this  coronation  we  rejoice, 
and  we  would  gladly  attribute  it  to  the 
purity  in  which  we  hold  this  "  faith  once  de- 
livered to  the  saints  ",  and  the  unflinching 
fidelity  with  which  in  every  age  we  have 
been  ready  to  champion  and  to  die  for  it. 
Our  creed  Q^j.  doctrinal  systcm  is  known  as  Cal- 

and  Calvin         .    . 

vmism,  not  because  it  origmated  with  Cal- 
vin; it  originated  with  God;  but  because 
Calvin,  after  Paul  and  possibly  Augus- 
tine, was  its  ablest  expounder.  Misled 
by  the  name,  our  critics  have  long  been  in 

ing  of  the  Methodist  Ecumenical  Conference  to  the 
Pan-Presbyterian  Alliance,  1892. 

J2 


THE   CREED    FORMULATED 

the  habit  of  quoting  as  part  of  our  faith  any 
and  every  view  held  by  Calvin.  Calvin's 
beliefs,  however,  form  no  part  of  our  creed 
except  in  so  far  as  they  are  incorporated  in 
our  Standards,  which  were  framed  nearly  a 
century  after  Calvin's  death. 

The  doctrinal  Standards  of  our  Chtirch  our  doc- 
are  three:   the  Westminster  Shorter  Cate- ^''^'"''^ '^'^^''^' 

ards. 

chism,  the  Westminster  Larger  Catechism, 
and  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith. 
They  are  not  three  creeds.  They  are  three 
statements,  varying  in  form,  fulness,  and 
purpose,  of  one  and  the  same  creed.  Each 
is  complete  in  itself.  Each  contains  all  the 
essential  truths  of  Scripture.  Each  is  a 
complete  epitome  of  the  Calvinistic  system. 
Whoever  intelligently  accepts  the  teachings 
of  the  Shorter  Catechism  is  a  true  Calvin- 
ist.  Should  he  extend  his  studies  to  the 
Larger  Catechism  and  the  Confession  of 
Faith  he  would  find  in  them,  the  same 
svstem  of  doctrine  with  which  the  briefer 
statements  of  the  Shorter  Catechism  had 
already  acquainted  him. 
13 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 


The  Stand- 
ards and 
Church  metn- 
bership. 


The  Stand- 
ards and 
Office-bear- 
ers, 


Her  doctrinal  system  the  Presbyterian 
Church  accentuates.  She  is  pronouncedly 
and  pre-eminently  a  doctrinal  church. 
Yet  the  acceptance  of  her  Standards  she 
never  requires  of  any  applicant  for  admis- 
sion to  her  fold.  Her  only  condition  of 
church  membership  is  a  credible  profession 
of  faith  in  Christ.  Calvinistic  and  Armin- 
ian  believers  in  Christ  she  welcomes  with 
equal  heartiness.  Her  door  of  entrance  is 
wide  as  the  gate  of  heaven. 

But  of  her  ofhce-bearers  she  requires 
doctrinal  soundness.  The  question  asked 
them  at  ordination  is,  "  Do  you  sincerely 
receive  and  adopt  the  Confession  of  Faith 
and  the  Catechisms  of  our  Church  as  con- 
taining the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures? "  This  formula  of 
subscription  is  liberal.  It  binds  only  to  "  all 
the  essential  and  necessary  articles."  ^  "  The 
use  of  the  words  '  system  of  doctrine  '  in 
the   terms   of   subscription   precludes   the 


Adopting  Act  of  1729. 
14 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

idea  of  the  necessary  acceptance  of  every 
statement  in  the  Standards  by  the  sub- 
scribers, but  involves  the  acceptance  of 
so  much  as  is  vital  to  the  system  as  a 
v^hole."  2 

Our  doctrinal  formularies  are  known  as  Name  and 
the  Westminster  Standards  because  the  fa-  '^^ 
*nous  Assembly  of  divines  that  framed  them 
held  their  sessions  in  England's  great  Ab- 
bey of  Westminster.  Their  labors  ex- 
tended over  five  and  a  half  years,  during 
which  time  they  held  nearly  twelve  hun- 
dred sessions.  They  met  in  1643,  at  a 
period  in  the  world's  history  when  the 
human  intellect,  for  reasons  known  to 
scholars,  appears  to  have  reached  the  zenith 
of  its  power.  The  era  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  was  the  era  of  Shakespeare,^ 
whose  work  stands  matchless  among  the 
creations  of  the  human  imagination.     It 

^Southern  General  Assembly's  answer  to  overture 
of  inquiry.     Minutes  of  1898,  p.  223. 

^  Collier  dates  the  close  of  the  Elizabethan  Era  at 
1659,  Saintsbury  and  Thomas  Arnold  at  1660. 

15 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

was  the  era  of  the  translators  of  the  Eng- 
lish Bible,  whose  version  remains  the  un- 
approachable model  of  the  world's  prose. 
It  was  the  era  of  Francis  Bacon,  the  author 
of  the  most  epoch-making  work  in  the  his- 
tory of  human  philosophy.  In  its  own 
realm  of  theology,  the  work  of  the  West- 
minster divines,  for  comprehensive  grasp 
of  Scripture  truth,  for  clearness,  compact- 
ness, and  power  of  statem.ent,  is  worthy  a 
place  beside  these  three  other  products  of 
the  human  intellect  at  its  flood-tide. 
Personnel,  Xhc  Westminster  Assembly  was  a  repre- 
sentative body,  called  by  the  English  Par- 
liament, made  up  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one  divines,  eleven  lords,  twenty 
commoners,  from  all  the  counties  of  Eng- 
land and  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  with  seven  Commissioners 
from  Scotland.  Many  of  them  jeopardized 
their  livings  by  accepting  the  Parliament's 
appointment,  and  after  the  Restoration 
cheerfully  sacrificed  their  earthly  all  for 
conscience'  sake.  It  was  an  elect  assem- 
i6 


THE    CREED   FORMULATED 

bly.  On  every  side  were  men  conspicuous 
for  learning,  eloquence,  and  piety;  profes- 
sors not  only  of  the  sacred  but  also  of 
the  secular  sciences;  Deans,  Masters,  and 
Heads  of  Colleges,  Vice-Chancellors  in  the  f 
great  Universities.  Their  Moderator  was 
Dr.  Twisse,  scholar  and  theologian  of  con- 
tinental fame,  whose  ruling  passion  may  be 
inferred  from  his  death-bed  utterance, 
"  Now,  at  length,  I  shall  have  leisure  to 
follow  my  studies  to  all  eternity." 

Nor  were  they  scholars  and  theologians  ^ 

alone.  Amongst  them  were  thinkers  of  va- 
rious type — orators,  statesmen,  hymnists, 
saints,  men  in  every  way  qualified  to  voice 
the  deepest  religious  convictions  and  em- 
body in  symbols  and  institutions  the  intense 
life  of  that  marvellous  spiritual  revival 
which  produced  "  statesmen  like  Hamp- 
den, soldiers  like  Cromwell,  poets  like  Mil- 
ton, preachers  like  Howe,  theologians  like 
Owen,  dreamers  like  Bunyan,  hymnists  like  - 
Watts,  commentators  like  Henry,  saints 
like  Baxter." 

I? 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

'*A  cloud  of      Milton,  though  not  a  member  of  the  As- 

wiinessesr    sembly,  pronounced  it  a  "  select  assembly  ", 

"of  so  much  piety  and  wisdom",  a  "learned 

and  memorable  synod  ",  in  which  "  piety, 

learning,  and  prudence  were  housed  ". 

The  famous  saint  and  scholar,  Richard 
Baxter,  author  of  "  The  Saints'  Everlast- 
ing Rest ",  had  every  reason  to  be  impartial. 
He  wrote:  "The  divines  there  congregated 
were  men  of  eminent  learning,  godliness, 
ministerial  abilities,  and  fidelity;  and  being 
not  worthy  to  be  one  of  them  myself,  I  may 
the  more  freely  speak  the  truth,  which  I 
know,  even  in  the  face  of  malice  and  envy, 
that  as  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge  by  the  in- 
formation of  all  history  of  that  kind,  and 
by  any  other  evidences  left  us,  the  Christian 
world,  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  had 
never  a  synod  of  more  excellent  divines." 
Philip  Schaff,  the  great  church  historian, 
pronounces  the  above  a  "  just  tribute  "  to 
the  Westminster  Assembly,  and  says: 
"  Whether  we  look  at  the  extent  or  ability 
of  its  labors,  or  its  influence  upon  future 
i8 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

generations,  it  stands  first  among  Protes- 
tant Councils." 

The  celebrated  Dean  Stanley,  of  the  Eng- 
lish Episcopal  Church,  declares  that  of  all 
Protestant  Confessions  the  Westminster 
Confession  "  exhibits  far  more  depth  of 
theological  insight  than  any  other  ". 

The  late  Dr.  Curry,  the  eminent  editor  of 
the  "  Methodist  Advocate  "  of  New  York, 
in  an  editorial  on  Creeds,  calls  ''  the  West- 
minster Confession  the  ablest,  clearest,  and 
most  comprehensive  system  of  Christian 
doctrine  ever  framed — a  wonderful  monu- 
ment of  the  intellectual  greatness  of  its 
framers  ". 

The  Assembly  had  to  assist  them  in  their  Background. 
work  all  the  creeds  of  past  ages,  from  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  formed  in  the  early  cen- 
turies, down  to  the  noble  Confessions  and 
Catechisms  of  the  Reformation  period. 
The  great  Reformers,  coming  with  fresh 
and  eager  eyes  to  the  study  of  the  newly 
opened  Bible,  and  taking  that  alone  as  their 
rule  of  faith,  were  all  Calvinists  in  theol- 

IQ 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

ogy.  For  the  same  reason  the  people  and 
Church  of  England  were  Calvinistic.  *'  The 
Bible  ",  says  the  historian  Green,  "  was,  as 
yet,  the  one  book  which  was  familiar  to 
every  Englishman,  and  everywhere  its 
words,  as  they  fell  on  ears  which  custom 
had  not  deadened  to  their  force  and  beauty, 
kindled  a  startling  enthusiasm.  The  whole 
moral  efifect  which  is  produced  nowadays 
by  the  religious  newspaper,  the  tract,  the 
essay,  the  missionary  report,  the  sermon, 
was  then  produced  by  the  Bible  alone;  and 
its  effect  in  this  way,  however  dispassion- 
ately we  examine  it,  was  simply  amazing. 
The  whole  nation  became  a  church.  The 
problems  of  life  and  death,  whose  question- 
ings found  no  answer  in  the  higher  minds 
of  Shakespeare's  day,  pressed  for  an  answer 
not  only  from  noble  and  scholar,  but  from 
farmer  and  shopkeeper  in  the  age  that  fol- 
lowed him.  The  answer  they  found  was  al- 
most of  necessity  a  Calvinistic  answer."  * 

*  "  Hist.  Eng.  People  "  (American  Publishers'  Cor- 
poration), vol.  III.  p.  405. 

20 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

The  work  before  the  Assembly,  there-  The  Assem- 
fore,  was  not  the  creation  of  a  new  system,  ^^^'^  ^'"'^'" 
but  the  formulation  of  doctrines  already 
familiar,  precious,  and  baptized  in  the  blood 
of  a  hundred  thousand  martyrs.  Its  task 
was  to  give  to  the  accepted  Bible  system 
of  truth  a  complete,  impregnable  state- 
ment, to  serve  as  a  bulwark  against  error, 
as  a  basis  of  ecclesiastical  fellowship  and 
co-operation,  and  as  a  safe  and  effective  in- 
strument for  the  religious  instruction  of 
the  people  of  God  and  their  children. 

The  popular  notion  that  the  Westmin-  Ethical 
ster  Standards  consist  of  dry  abstract  dog-  ^"'^^^^y- 
mas,  with  little  or  no  bearing  upon  life 
and  duty,  is  a  mistake.  Their  ethical 
quality  is  prominent  and  all-pervading. 
With  them,  as  with  the  Bible,  truth  is  in  or- 
der to  godliness.  Nearly  one  half  of  the 
Confession  and  more  than  one  half  of  both 
Catechisms  deal  directly  with  the  practical 
"  duty  which  God  requires  of  man  ".  That 
God's  holy  law  covers  every  part  and  parti- 
cle of  our  lives,  and  that  to  Him  we  must 

21 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

forever  be  accountable  for  our  obedience 
or  disobedience  thereto,  rolls  like  a  sublime 
and  conscience-stirring  music  through  all 
the  work  of  the  Westminster  divines.  No 
other  creed  in  existence  has  an  article  or 
chapter  on  the  Divine  Law  comparable  to 
that  of  the  Confession,  and  nowhere  else  in 
Christian  symbolism  can  be  found  such  an 
unfolding  of  the  heart-searching  claims  of 
that  law  as  is  given  in  the  exposition  by  the 
two  Catechisms  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. 
spiritual  Whoever  would  understand  the  believ- 

er's relation  to  Christ  and  the  various 
stages  of  genuine  Christian  experience  will 
find  in  chapters  xi  to  xviii  of  the  Confes- 
sion a  presentation  of  that  great  theme 
unmatched  by  any  other  creed  in  Christen- 
dom, compact  yet  complete,  profound  yet 
crystallinely  clear,  constituting  the  true 
doctrine  of  the  Christian  life  as  held  sub- 
stantially by  evangelical  Christendom  and 
the  subject-matter  of  the  best  evangelical 
preaching  of  this  and  every  preceding  age. 

22 


vitality. 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

No  reference  is  made  in  our  Standards 
to  any  antagonistic  opinion  held  by  any 
evangelical  communion.  Their  tone  is 
irenic.  They  were  born,  not  of  contro- 
versy, but  of  consecration.  Framed  ''  when 
the  church  was  still  under  the  happy  influ- 
ence of  a  marvellous  revival,  when  the 
Word  of  God  was  felt  as  a  living,  quicken- 
ing, transforming  power,  and  preached  not 
as  a  tradition,  but  as  the  very  power  and 
wisdom  of  God";  and  "by  men  of  ripe 
scholarship  and  devoted  piety,  who  have 
remained  our  models  of  earnest  preaching 
and  our  guides  in  practical  godliness,  even 
unto  this  day  ",^  they  read  as  if  every  para- 
graph had  been  written  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  God's  presence.  Strikingly  unlike 
many  modern  milk-and-water  treatises  on 
religion  they  undoubtedly  are.  Their  pri- 
m.ary  appeal  is  not  to  the  emotions  but  to 
the  intellect.  Their  chief  purpose  Is  to  de- 
fine truth,  not  to  apply  it.    Their  proper 

*"  Minutes   of  the  Sessions    of   the    Westminster 
Assembly  of  Divines."     Introduction,  p.  Ixxv. 

23 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 


function  is  not  that  of  a  sermon  or  a  prayer, 
but  of  a  test,  a  testimony,  a  text-book.  Yet 
so  packed  and  throbbing  are  they  with  the 
vital  truths  of  God's  Word,  such  stress  they 
place  on  personal  union  to  Christ  as  the  ex- 
planation of  our  being  made  partakers  of 
the  benefits  of  redemption,  such  space  and 
prominence  they  give  to  the  claims  of  God's 
moral  law,  that  they  are  admirably  fitted 
to  be,  as  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
they  have  been,  the  spiritual  food  of  stal- 
wart souls,  the  nurse  of  a  supremely  mas- 
sive and  masculine  type  of  piety. 

There  are  three  things  which,  in  addition 
to  their  character,  genius,  and  learning, 
must  ever  commend  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly to  our  confidence.  First,  the  care 
and  thoroughness  with  which  they  performed 
their  work. 

Consider,  for  example,  the  labor  ex- 
pended upon  the  Catechisms.  Catechism- 
making  was  no  new  work  to  the  members 
of  that  Assembly.  Theirs  was  an  age  exer- 
cised and  trained  beyond  any  previous  or 
24 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

succeeding  age  in  the  construction  of  doc- 
trinal manuals.  For  a  hundred  years 
Luther,  Calvin,  Ursinus,  and  a  score  more 
of  the  brightest  intellects  of  the  Reforma- 
tion had  been  devoting  their  best  energies 
to  the  production  of  catechisms  for  the  in- 
struction of  the  people.  Fourteen  of  the 
members  of  the  Assembly  were  themselves 
authors  of  excellent  and  widely  useful  cate- 
chisms. All  the  ripe  fruits  and  long  train- 
ing, therefore,  of  the  most  catechetical  cen- 
tury in  the  world's  history  the  Assembly 
had  as  a  basis  and  preparation  for  its  work. 

Early  in  the  sessions  of  the  Assembly  a  striving 
committee  of  known  proficients  in  such  *^ft'^pe^'-f'^<' 

tion. 

work  was  appomted  to  begin  the  undertak- 
ing. They  made  their  report,  but  it  was 
not  accepted  by  the  Assembly.  New  mem- 
bers were  added  to  the  committee.  After 
much  deliberation  a  second  report  was  sub- 
mitted. Still  the  Assembly  was  not  satis- 
fied. The  committee  was  again  changed. 
After  long  labor  a  third  report  was  pre- 
sented. For  three  months  the  Assembly 
25 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

had  this  catechism  under  review  and  dis- 
cussion. It  was  approved  almost  to  the 
end,  when  again  the  Assembly  became  dis- 
satisfied and  determined  to  make  a  fourth 
effort  to  secure  something  still  nearer  per- 
fect. The  committee  was  reconstituted 
with  a  large  addition  of  new  members,  and 
was  instructed  to  prepare  two  catechisms, 
one  larger  for  advanced  students,  and  an- 
other ''  more  easie  and  short  for  new  be- 
ginners ".  But  spite  of  past  labors  nearly 
two  years  more  of  alternate  report  and  re- 
vision were  required  before  the  last  of  the 
catechisms  was  completed  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  Assembly.  The  Larger  was 
completed  first.  The  Shorter  was  not  only 
the  last  of  the  Catechisms,  it  was  the  last 
finished  work  of  the  Assembly.  In  it  the 
Westminster  divines  achieved  their  great- 
est triumph.  It  is  the  consummate  flower 
of  all  their  labors. 
The  West'  Thus  for  fivc  years  committees  of  the 
minster  vs.    Assembly,  and  the  Assembly  itself,  labored 

other  Gate-  •'  "^  .        . 

chisms.         Upon   these   two    little    books,    subiectmg 

26 


THE   CREED    FORMULATED 

every  sentence,  every  word  to  the  most 
minute  and  searching  scrutiny.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  there  is  probably  not 
another  catechism  in  the  world  on  which 
one  tenth  of  the  time  and  labor  and  ability 
and  learning  was  expended  that  were  em- 
ployed in  the  production  of  these  two  with 
which  God  has  so  highly  blessed  our 
Church.  They  are  the  work  not  of  one 
man,  as  Luther's  and  Calvin's;  nor  of  two 
men,  as  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  was;  nor 
of  four,  as  was  the  Catechism  of  the  Church 
of  Rome;  but  they  are  the  product  of  five 
years  of  the  most  earnest  and  careful  de- 
liberations of  the  whole  Westminster  As- 
sembly.^ 

Equal  thought  and  care  were  bestowed  The  viirror 
upon   the    Confession.      Every   statement,  ^-^ 
every  alteration  suggested,  was  examined 
through  years  of  concentrated  study  till  the 
entire  Assembly  was  of  one  mind  and  fully 
agreed  as  to  both  doctrine  and  expression. 

*  '  Nature  and  Value  of  the  Catechisms.''     Strick- 
ler. 

27 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

All  that  training  the  most  complete  and 
thorough,  learning  the  most  profound  and 
extensive,    intellect    the    most    acute    and 
searching,  co-operation  the  most  wide  and 
helpful,   labor  the  most  intense  and  pro- 
tracted, could  do  to  make  our  Standards 
the  perfect  mirror  of  Scripture  truth,  was 
done. 
Second  char-      j\   sccoud  leading  characteristic  of  the 
"prrirflii-     Westminster  Assembly  was  their  prayerful 
ness.  dependence  upon   God   for  light  and  guid- 

ance. 

Two  traditions  have  come  down  to  us, 
w'hich,  while  of  disputed  authenticity,  yet 
represent  truly  the  spirit  of  prayer  that  per- 
vaded the  Assembly. 
More  light,  On  one  occasion  the  famous  John  Sel- 
den,  an  encyclopedic  scholar  and  brilliant 
orator,  addressed  the  Assembly  to  prove 
that  excommunication  was  a  function  not 
of  the  spiritual  but  of  the  civil  authority. 
It  was  a  vital  question  involving  the  spirit- 
ual independence  of  the  Church.  The  issue 
turned  on  the  interpretation  of  Matt.  i8  : 

28 


Lord 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

15-17.  Seidell's  speech  was  subtle  and 
powerful.  It  displayed  a  vast  acquaintance 
with  patristic  and  rabbinical  lore.  At  its 
close  the  Assembly  seemed  to  hesitate. 
The  saintly  Samuel  Rutherford,  who  was  a 
member,  turned  to  George  Gillespie,  the 
youngest  man  in  the  body,  and  said,  "  Rise, 
George;  rise  up,  man,  and  defend  the  right 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  govern  by  His  own 
laws  the  Church  He  has  purchased  with 
His  blood."  Thus  adjured,  Gillespie  arose, 
and  delivered  a  speech  whose  effect  per- 
haps has  never  been  surpassed.  Selden's 
argument  he  utterly  annihilated,  proving 
by  seven  distinct  lines  of  reasoning,  all 
purely  scriptural,  that  the  passage  in  Mat- 
thew was  not  civil  but  spiritual  in  its  im- 
port. At  the  conclusion  of  his  argument 
Selden  exclaimed,  ''  That  young  man  by 
his  single 'speech  has  swept  away  the  labors 
of  ten  years  of  my  life."  While  Selden  was 
speaking  a  friend  had  observed  Gillespie 
apparently  making  notes  upon  the  paper 
before  him.  When  examined  the  notes 
29 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

proved  to  be  only  this  prayer:  "  More  light, 
Lord!   More  light,  Lord!" 

'l^^^f^^  According  to   a  familiar  tradition,  the 

Shorter  Catechism's  incomparable  defini- 
tion of  God  was  literally  born  of  prayer. 
To  that  great  question,  "  What  is  God?  " 
the  Catechism  Committee  had  found  them- 
selves unable  to  construct  a  satisfactory 
answer.  The  question  had  been  referred 
to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole.  They, 
too,  had  failed.  Then  one  of  the  mem- 
bers was  called  on  to  lead  in  special 
prayer  for  divine  enlightenment.  Rising, 
he  thus  began:  ''  O  God,  Who  art  a 
Spirit,  infinite,  eternal,  and  unchangeable, 
in  Thy  being,  wisdom,  power,  holiness,  jus- 
tice, goodness,  and  truth."  When  this 
matchless  invocation  fell  upon  their  ears 
the  Assembly  felt  at  once  that  it  was  God's 
own  answer,  given  in  prayer  and  to  prayer, 
descriptive  of  Himself. 

Wrestling  in  Not  ouly  did  the  Assembly  both  as  a 
praver.  body  and  as  individuals  habitually  look  to 

God  for  special  guidance  in  special  diffi- 
30 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

culties,  not  only  were  the  daily  sessions 
opened  and  closed  with  prayer,  but  regu- 
larly every  month  throughout  the  five  and 
a  half  years  of  its  labors  all  business  was 
suspended  that  an  entire  day  might  be 
given  to  fasting  and  prayer.  It  seems  al- 
most incredible  to  us  that  they  should  have 
remained  in  continuous  devotional  worship 
from  morning  till  evening,  wrestling  with 
God  often  for  two  hours  together  in  un- 
broken supplication;  but  in  those  times 
when  all  the  interests  of  Christ's  Kingdom 
seemed  to  be  at  stake,  men  realized  their 
need  of  Divine  help,  and  when  once  at  the 
throne  of  grace  knew  not  how  to  come 
away  till  the  blessing  was  obtained.  It  is 
probably  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  with 
Dr.  C.  A.  Briggs  that  "  such  a  band  of 
preaching  and  praying  ministers  as  gath- 
ered in  the  Westminster  Assembly  the  world 
had  never  seen  before."  No  body  of 
men  ever  felt  more  profoundly  their  de- 
pendence upon  God,  or  sought  more  ear- 
nestly and  habitually  the  guidance  of  His 
Spirit. 

31 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

Third  char-  The  third  most  striking  characteristic  of 
^L^lT'^to  ^^^  Westminster  Assembly  was  their  loyalty 
Scripture,      to  Scnpture. 

The  Bible  The  first  topic  of  which  the  Confession  of 

^b\^h  n't!  -^^^^^  treats  is  the  Divine  inspiration,  au- 
thority, and  sufficiency  of  the  Word  of  God. 
In  its  forefront  stands  this  declaration: 
"  The  Supreme  Judge,  by  which  all  contro- 
versies of  religion  are  to  be  determined, 
and  all  decrees  of  councils,  opinions  of 
ancient  writers,  doctrines  of  men,  and  pri- 
vate spirits,  are  to  be  examined,  and  in 
whose  sentence  we  are  to  rest,  can  be  no 
other  but  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  in  the 
Scripture."  '^ 

Every  member  was  required  to  take  the 
following  vow,  which  was  read  afresh  every 
Monday  morning  that  its  solemn  influence 
might  be  constantly  felt:  ''  I  do  seriously 
promise  and  vow,  in  the  presence  of  Al- 
mighty God,  that  in  this  Assembly  whereof 
I  am  a  member,  I  will  maintain  nothing  in 


'  Chap.  I,  section  lo. 
32 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

point  of  doctrine  but  what  I  believe  to  be 
most  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God." 

One  of  the  cardinal  regulations  of  the 
Assembly  was  in  these  words:  ''  What  any 
man  undertakes  to  prove  as  necessary,  he 
shall  make  good  out  of  Scripture." 

The  Westminster  divines  were  consum-  The  stand- 
mate  masters  of  philosophy.     They  were '^'^'°'*^ 

philosophy. 

familiar  with  the  great  schools  of  human 
thought  from  Plato  and  Aristotle  down 
to  Bacon  and  Descartes.  But  in  framing 
these  Standards  their  one  and  only  aim 
was  to  express  the  mind  of  Scripture. 
In  their  whole  system-  of  doctrine  no  tinge 
of  human  philosophy  is  apparent.  Says 
Dr.  Fisher  of  Yale  University:  *'  One 
prime  characteristic  of  Calvin's  system  is 
the  steadfast  consistent  adoption  of  the 
BiWe  as  the  sole  standard  of  doctrine."  • 
So  in  our  Standards  there  is  not  a  para- 
graph which  affords  a  hint  of  what  philo- 
sophical school  the  Assembly  favored. 
Even  those  questions  where  Scripture  and 

""The  Reformation",  p.  199. 
33 


THE    CREED    FORMULATED 

philosophy  intermingle  were  determined 
by  the  Assembly  always  and  exclusively  on 
biblical  grounds. 

The  Un-  And  herein  appears  the  Divine  wisdom 

"undlfion  ^y  which  they  were  guided.  Human  phi- 
losophies are  ever  changing.  A  system 
founded  upon  them  must  soon  appear  to 
totter,  and  to  need  amendment  or  recon- 
struction. "  But  the  Word  of  God  liveth 
and  abideth  forever."  The  structure  which 
is  built  exclusively  upon  this  is,  like 
it,  permanent.  ''  In  this  ",  declares  a  great 
Presbyterian  theologian,  ''  we  find  the  chief 
glory  and  value  of  our  Standards."  ^^  For 
this  reason  they  will  need  radical  change 
only  when  the  Bible  needs  it. 

The  offense  There  are  hard  sayings  in  our  Standards 
because  there  are  hard  sayings  in  the  Bible. 
Some  doctrines  for  which  the  Presbyterian 
Church  stands  are  among  the  '^  hard  things 
to  be  understood  "  of  which  ''  our  beloved 
brother  Paul  wrote  ".  "  This  is  a  hard  say- 
ing, who  can  hear  it?  "  So  said  many  in 
*°"  Memorial  of  Westminster  Assembly  ",  p.  94. 
34 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

Christ's  day  of  Christ's  teaching.  They 
were  offended.  They  walked  no  more  with 
Him.  Like  many  in  our  own  day,  they  de- 
manded a  religion  "  more  Christian  than 
Christianity  and  more  Christlike  than 
Christ  ".  Just  so  the  unflinching  scriptural- 
ness  of  our  creed,  its  faithful  mirroring  of 
the  mind  of  Christ  revealed  by  His  Spirit  in 
His  Word,  is  the  reason  why  it  never  has 
been,  is  not,  and  never  will  be  popular  with 
the  rationalistic  and  unregenerate  world. 
"  The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things 
of  the  Spirit  of  God."  ^^  The  offense  of  the 
Word  is  as  undying  as  the  offense  of  the 
Cross. 

Every  statement  of  essential  Calvinistic  chief  cham 
doctrine  in  our  Standards  the  Bible  ^yx)^- pion  and 

vtariyr, 

stantiates  by  equally  bold  and  bald  state- 
ments of  its  own.  Yet  the  former  is  the 
chosen  object  of  attack.  The  reason  is 
plain.  In  a  Christian  land,  where  the  Scrip- 
tures are  widely  reverenced,  it  is  cheaper 
rmd  safer  to  assault  the  Presbyterian  Stand- 

"  I  Cor.  2  :  14. 

35 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

ards  than  to  assault  the  Bible.  Hence  it 
is  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  always 
sustained  the  brunt  of  the  fight  for  the  in- 
tegrity of  God's  truth.  "  We  gratefully  ac- 
knowledge ",  said  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Conference  in  its  address  to  the  Presbyte- 
rian Alliance,  "  the  faithful  and  unfaltering 
testimony  which  your  Church  has  borne 
throughout  her  entire  history  on  behalf  of 
the  divine  inspiration  and  authority  of  the 
Word  of  God."  Said  the  Baptist  Associa- 
tion in  its  greeting  to  the  same  body:  *'  The 
Presbyterian  Church  has  been  the  magnifi- 
cent defender  of  the  Word  of  God  through- 
out the  ages."  Above  all  others,  she  has 
borne,  bears  now,  and  will  continue  to  bear, 
on  her  name  the  odium,  and  upon  her  per- 
son the  blows,  provoked  by  and  aimed 
against  the  Word  of  God.  Humbly  yet 
proudly  she  can  say  to  her  Lord,  "  The  re- 
proaches of  them  that  reproached  Thee  fell 
on  me." 
The  proposed  j^^^  ^q  Presbytcrian  be  alarmed  over  tfie 
proposed  revision  of  the  Confession  of 
36 


revtstct 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

Faith.  In  regard  to  marriage  with  a  de- 
ceased wife's  sister  and  the  duties  of  civil 
magistrates  the  Confession  has  already- 
been  twice  revised.  But  neither  the  past 
nor  the  proposed  revision  has  impaired  or 
will  impair  in  any  way  the  integrity  of  our 
Calvinistic  system  of  doctrine. 

The  Revision  Committee  appointed  \mn  the  North- 
1890  by  the  Northern  Presbyterian  Church''''^  Church. 
brought  in  after  two  years'  deliberation 
a  report  recommending  twenty-eight 
changes  in  the  Confession.  These  pro- 
posed changes,  most  of  them  very  slight, 
involved  no  reconstruction  of  the  Confes- 
sional system  of  doctrine.  This  the  pro- 
posed revision  would  not  have  changed; 
just  as  the  Revised  Version  of  the  Scrip- 
tures has  not  changed  the  doctrinal  sys- 
tem contained  in  the  Authorized  Version, 
which,  by  the  way,  is  only  thirty-six  years 
older  than  our  Confession. 

The  Northern  General  Assembly  in  the 
spring  of  1900  appointed  a  large  commit- 
tee to  consider  again  the  question  of  re- 
37 


THE   CREED   FORMULATED 

vision  and  report  to  the  Assembly  of  1901. 
Seven  months  later  this  Committee,  hav- 
ing thoroughly  examined  the  answers 
made  by  the  Presbyteries  at  their  fall  meet- 
ings to  the  General  Assembly's  inquiry 
touching  their  attitude  toward  the  question 
of  revision,  reported  that  while  the  'returns 
clearly  indicated  that  the  Church  desired 
some  change  in  its  creedal  statement, 
either  by  revision,  or  supplemental  state- 
ment, or  both,  yet  ''  the  returns  indicate 
plainly  that  no  change  is  desired  which 
would  in  any  way  impair  the  integrity  of 
the  system  of  doctrine  contained  in  the 
Confession  of  Faith." 
In  the  South-  The  last  Southern  General  Assembly  was 
opposed  to  any  change  whatever  in  the 
Confession.  It  directed,  however,  that  in 
future  editions  the  following  statement  be 
printed  as  a  foot-note  to  chap,  x,  para- 
graph 3:  ''  The  language  of  the  Confession 
cannot  by  any  fair  interpretation  be  con- 
strued as  teaching  that  any  of  those  who 
die  in  infancy  are  lost."  Whether  the  or- 
38 


THE    CREED    FORMULATED 

dering  by  an  Assembly  of  foot-notes  to  the 
Confession  be  a  constitutional  and  wise 
procedure,  future  Assemblies  will  decide. 
As  regards,  however,  the  teaching  of  the 
Confession  concerning  the  salvation  of  in- 
fants dying  in  infancy,  the  proposed  foot- 
note clearly  expresses  the  unanimous  judg- 
ment of  the  highest  court  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church. 

Amid  this  revisional  agitation  the  reader  Not  a  gues- 
should  never  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  ^^'^'^  of  ortho^ 

doxy. 

Confession  is  only  one  of  our  Standards. 
The  Shorter  Catechism,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  Larger,  is  as  soundly  Calvinistic  as  the 
Confession,  yet  no  revision  of  the  Cate- 
chisms has  ever  been  proposed  or  thought 
of.  The  question  at  issue,  therefore,  is  not 
a  question  of  orthodoxy,  and  no  Presbyte- 
rian need  be  alarmed  for  the  integrity  of 
that  historic  and  Scriptural  system  on 
which  and  for  which  his  Church  has  stood 
from  the  beginning,  and  will  surely  stand 
to  the  end. 

39 


II 


THE     CREED   TESTED     BY     ITS 
FRUITS 


'■'■By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." — Matt.  7  :  20. 


II 


THE    CREED    TESTED    BY    ITS 
FRUITS 

We  propose  now  to  submit  the  doctrinal  The  decisive 
system  incorporated  in,  though  far  older  *^^^' 
than,  the  Westminster  Standards,  to  a  sim- 
ple yet  decisive  test,  a  test  endorsed  by 
the  common  sense  of  mankind  and  the  au- 
thority of  Christ,  the  test  of  practical  results. 
In  his  celebrated  essay  on  Calvinism 
Froude  says:  "  The  practical  effect  of  a  be- 
lief is  the  real  test  of  its  soundness."  ^  In 
His  Sermon  on  the  Mount  our  Lord  de- 
clares, "  Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits." 
As  a  fruit-bearer,  as  a  character-builder,  as 
a  purifying  and  uplifting  force  in  the  life 
of  men  and  nations,  how  does  Calvinism 

* "  Short  .studies  on  Great  Subjects  ",  p.  II. 
43 


THE    CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

rank  with  other  doctrinal  systems?  We  re- 
ply, it  stands  foremost  of  them  all. 

I.  The  superior  moral  power  of  Calvin- 
ism we  should  infer,  even  without  the  aid 
of  history,  from  the  inherent  character  and 
tendency  of  its  teaching. 

It  is  a  system  distinguished  superem- 
inently by  its  exaltation  of  God.  "  A  pro- 
found sense  of  the  exaltation  of  God  ",  says 
Dr.  George  P.  Fisher  of  Yale,  ''  is  the  key- 
note of  Calvinism."  ^  The  glory  of  the 
Lord  God  Almighty  is  its  unifying  all-per- 
vading principle,  the  blazing  sun  and  cen- 
tre of  the  system.  Not  bare  sovereignty, 
arbitrary  will,  naked  power,  but  a  personal 
God  of  grace,  the  God  revealed  in  Christ, 
is  the  God  of  Calvinism.  It  adores  Him  as 
the  Absolute  and  Ever-Blessed  Sovereign, 
infinitely  worthy  of  love,  worship,  and  obe- 
dience, "  Who  doth  uphold,  direct,  dispose, 
and  govern  all  creatures,  actions,  and 
things,  from  the  greatest  even  to  the  least, 

"•  The  Reformation",  p.  20i. 
44 


THE   CREED   TESTED    BY   ITS   FRUITS 

to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  His  wisdom, 
power,  justice,  goodness,  and  mercy." ' 
The  keynote  of  the  whole  system  is  struck 
in  the  first  question  of  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism: "What  is  the  chief  end  of  man? 
Man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God,  and  to 
enjoy  Him  forever."  ^  *'  Hallowed  be  Thy 
name,  Thy  Kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be 
done ",  is  the  threefold  petition  which 
expresses  the  heart  of  Calvinism.  As 
one  has  said,  "  In  all  place,  in  all  time, 
from  eternity  to  eternity,  Calvinism  sees 
God." 

From  its  absorbed  and  adoring  view  of  Caivinisv. 
God  comes  Calvinism's  conscientiousness,  ^^^  ^^^^^ 
its  deep  and  dominant  sense  of  duty  and  re- 
sponsibility. The  Ever-Blessed  is  the  Ever- 

'  "  Confession  of  Faith  ",  Chap.  V,  section  i. 

*Said  Thomas  Carlyle  in  speaking  against  modern 
materialism:  "The  older  I  grow — and  I  now  stand 
upon  the  brink  of  eternity — the  more  comes  back  to 
me  the  first  sentence  in  the  Catechism  which  I 
learned  when  a  child,  and  the  fuller  and  deeper  its 
meaning  becomes  :  '  What  is  the  chief,  end  of  man  ? 
To  glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  Him  forever.'  " 


45 


THE   CREED   TESTED  BY   ITS   FRUITS 

Present  God,  under  Whose  eye,  in  Whose 
fellowship,  for  Whose  glory,  and  subject 
to  Whose  review,  the  whole  of  human  life 
is  to  be  lived.  *'  Calvinism  ",  says  Prof. 
Fiske  of  Harvard,  "  leaves  the  individual 
man  alone  in  the  presence  of  his  God."  ^ 
Beyond  all  example,  it  intensifies  man's  in- 
dividuality. In  a  clear  and  overpowering 
light  it  shows  his  responsibility  to  God,  and 
his  relations  to  eternity.  Its  aim  is  not  sen- 
sation, but  conviction.  Feeling  or  no  feel- 
ing, at  the  soul's  unspeakable  peril,  God's 
commands  must  be  obeyed;  God's  will 
must  be  done.  Not,  is  it  pleasant,  or  pop- 
ular, or  profitable;  but,  is  it  right?  Is  it 
what  God  would  have  me  do?  This  is  Cal- 
vinism's first  question. 

"  Whether  therefore  ye  eat,  or  drink,  or 
whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of 
God."  ^  This  is  the  Calvinistic  program, 
illustrated  in  Paul,  saying  with  his  heart  in 
his  voice,  "  Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me 

*"  The  Beginnings  of  New  England",  p.  58. 
®I  Cor.  10:31. 

46 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

to  do?  ";  in  Calvin,  of  whom  Jules  Michelet 
says,  "  He  felt  and  lived  like  a  man  before 
whom  the  whole  earth  disappears,  and  who 
tunes  his  last  psalm,  his  whole  eye  fixed 
upon  the  eye  of  God  ";  in  Knox,  of  whom 
Carlyle  says,  ''  The  fixed  centre  of  all  his 
thoughts  and  actions  was  to  do  the  will  of 
God  and  tremble  at  nothing  ";  in  the  Puri- 
tans, whose  diligence  in  searching  the  Scrip- 
tures, Green  says,  "  sprang  from  their  ear- 
nestness to  discover  a  Divine  will  which  in 
all  things,  great  or  small,  they  might  im- 
plicitly obey ",  in  whom  Taine  tells  us 
"  conscience  only  spoke  "  and  in  whose 
eyes  ''  God  and  duty  were  but  one  ";  in  the 
Calvinists  in  general,  whose  ''system",  says 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  has  ''  no  equal  in  in- 
tensifying to  the  last  degree  ideas  of  moral 
excellence  and  purity  ",  and  whose  supe- 
riority to  men  of  other  creeds,  says  James 
Russell  Lowell,  lies  "  in  the  prevalent  sense 
of  duty,  in  high  ideals,  in  inflexible  prin- 
ciples, in  living 

"  'As  ever  in  theii  great  Taskmaster's  eye.'  " 

47 


a  nd  sin. 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS    FRUITS 

From   its   supreme   exaltation   of   God 
springs  logically  and   scripturally  Calvin- 
ism's doctrine  of  sin  and  grace. 
Calvinism  In  proportion  as  God  is  great  and  glori- 

ous Calvinism  recognizes  the  sin  of  man 
to  be  heinous  and  fatal.  Its  enormity  and 
ill  desert  are  beyond  man's  calculation  or 
conception.*^    It  is  recreancy  to  his  supreme 

***  Recently  a  distinguished  preacher  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church  remarked  to  me  that  he  thought  the  doc- 
trine of  entire  sanctification  as  taught  by  its  recent 
advocates  bore  a  much  closer  affinity  to  Calvinism 
than  to  Arminianism.  '  How  do  you  account  for  the 
fact*,  I  asked,  'that  it  spread  so  readily  among  the 
Methodist  churches,  and  can  get  no  foothold  in 
Presbyterian  churches?'  He  replied  that  he  had 
tried  to  explain  the  fact  and  had  been  unable. 
Whereupon  I  suggested  that  if  the  people  were  once 
indoctrinated  with  the  Calvinistic  idea  of  the  utterly 
loathsome  and  deadlj'  nature  of  sin,  they  could  never 
be  convinced  that  it  was  possible  to  get  rid  of  it  by 
any  such  easy  and  sudden  process  as  that  offered  by 
the  holiness  brethren.  He  admitted  that  this  was 
probably  the  true  explanation.  Undoubtedly  Calvin- 
nism  brands  sin  with  a  deeper  infamy  than  any  other 
school  of  theology.  By  as  much  as  it  emphasizes 
the  hatefulness  of  sin,  by  so  much  does  it  emphasize 
the  love  of  God,  of  which  sinners  are  the  object." 
(Reed,   "The  Gospel  as  Taught  by  Calvin",  p.  129.) 

48 


THE    CREED   TESTED  BY   ITS   FRUITS 

relation.  It  is  rebellion  against  the  right- 
ful authority  of  the  Greatest  and  Best  of 
beings.  It  is  self-separation  and  estrange- 
ment from  the  Source  of  Truth  and  Life. 
Impenitent  man  is  guilty,  lost,  ''  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins  ".  Left  to  himself  his 
condition  is  one  of  hopeless  condemnation 
and  misery.  Thus  Calvinism  drags  down 
all  pride  and  carnal  security  and  prostrates 
man  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  a  suppliant  for 
mercy. 

In  answer  to  his  suppliant  cry,^  it  reveals  Calvinism 
a  salvation  which  is  all  of  grace,^  the  free  ^''^^''''<^'- 


We  supplement  Dr.  Reed's  explanation  with  the 
remark  that  people  who  have  been  rightly  taught  in 
childhood  "what  is  required  "  and  "what  is  forbid- 
den "  in  the  Decalogue  will  ever  after  be  slow  to  be- 
lieve that  any  "  mere  man.  since  the  fall,  is  able  per- 
fectly in  this  life  to  keep  the  commandments  of  God." 

•  *'  Whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  saved."     Rom.  10:13. 

•"  For  by  grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith  ;  and 
that  not  of  yourselves  ;  it  is  the  gift  of  God  :  not  of 
works,  lest  any  man  should  boast  ;  for  we  are  His 
workmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good 
works,  which  God  hath  before  ordained  that  we 
should  walk  in  them."     Eph.  2  :  8,  9,  10. 

49 


THE  CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

gift  of  God's  love  and  mercy  in  Christ.^ ^  In 
His  hands  are  all  its  blessings  placed,  the 
Spirit  of  life,  pardon  and  justifying  right- 
eousness, sanctifying,  establishing,  com- 
forting, glorifying  grace,  resurrection,  and 
eternal  life,  and  from  those  pierced  hands 
are  all  received.  From  first  to  last  salva- 
tion is  "  of  the  Lord  ",  of  Whom,  and 
through  Whom,  and  to  Whom  are  all 
things,  that  His  may  be  the  glory  ever- 
more. No  inch  of  ground  is  left  for  human 
boasting.^^  The  sinner  does  not  save  him- 
self. It  is  God  that  saves  him  with  a  salva- 
tion free,^^  present,^^  complete,^^  and  ever- 
lasting.^^    He  embraces  the  sinner  in  the 

^° "  God,  who  hath  saved  us,  and  called  us  with  an 
holy  calling,  not  according  to  our  works,  but  accord- 
ing to  His  own  purpose  and  grace  which  was  given  us 
in  Christ  Jesus  before  the  world  began."     2  Tim.  i  :  9. 

""Where  is  boasting  then?  It  is  excluded." 
RDm.  3:  27. 

12  "  The  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life."     Rom.  6  :  23. 

'="*  He  that  believeth  on  Me  hath  everlasting  life." 
John  6  :  47. 

"  "  Ye  are  complete  in  Him."    Col.  2  :  10. 

i5««i  give   unto   them  eternal  life  and  they  shalJ 
never  perish."    John  10  :  28. 
50 


THE  CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

arms  of  unchanging  love.^^  He  secures  him 
by  the  bonds  of  an  everlasting  covenant.^^ 
He  gives  him  an  inaHenable  place  in  the 
family  of  God.^^  He  sets  before  him  an 
unclouded  prospect  of  final  victory  and 
eternal  joy.^^  He  guarantees  that  all 
things  shall  work  together  for  his  good.^^ 

^*"For  I  am  persuaded  that  neither  death,  nor 
life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor 
things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  sepa- 
rate us  from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord."     Rom.  8  :  38,  39. 

"  "  The  mountains  shall  depart  and  the  hills  be  re- 
moved, but  my  kindness  shall  not  depart  from  thee, 
neither  shall  the  covenant  of  my  peace  be  removed, 
saith  the  Lord  that  hath  mercy  on  thee."     Is.  54  :  10. 

^^  "  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it 
doth  not  yet  appear  what  wc  shall  be,  but  we  know 
that  when  He  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for 
we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is."     i  Jno.  3  :  2. 

^*  "  An  inheritance  incorruptible  and  undefiled,  and 
that  fadeth  not  away,  reserved  in  heaven  for  you  who 
are  kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto  sal- 
vation ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  last  time,  wherein 
ye  greatly  rejoice."     i  Pet.  i  :  4,  5,  6. 

^•^"We  know  that  all  things  work  together  for 
good  to  them  that  love  God,  to  them  who  are  the 
called  according  to  His  purpose  ;  for  whom  He  did 
foreknow  He  also  did  predestinate  to  be  conformed 
to  the  image  of  His  Son,  that  He  might  be  the  first- 

51 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

He  shows  him  his  name  in  the  Book  of  Life, 
and  reveals  to  him  that  he  was  chosen  in 
Christ  before  the  foundation  of  the  world 
that  he  should  be  holy  and  without  blame 
before  Him  in  love.^^  Upon  his  mind  there 
breaks  the  amazing  truth  that  before  crea- 
tion's dawn,  before  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  or  ever  the  sons  of  God  shouted 
for  joy,  away  back  "  in  the  beginning  ", 
God  had  a  thought  of  him,  and  that 
thought  was  love.^^  Before  He  found  a 
place  for  the  universe  in  His  hand,  He  had 
found  a  place  for  him  in  His  heart.^^ 

born  among  many  brethren.  Moreover,  whom  He 
did  predestinate,  them  He  also  called,  and  whom  He 
called,  them  He  also  justified,  and  whom  He  justi- 
fied, them  He  also  glorified."     Rom.  8  :  28-30. 

"  "  He  hath  chosen  us  in  Christ  before  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world  that  we  should  be  holy  and  without 
blame  before  Him  in  love,  having  predestinated  us 
unto  the  adoption  of  children  by  Jesus  Christ  to 
Himself."     Eph.  1:4,  5. 

^ "  But  we  are  bound  to  give  thanks  always  to 
God  for  you,  brethren  beloved  of  the  Lord,  because 
God  hath  from  the  beginning  chosen  you  to  salva- 
tion through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief 
of  the  truth."     2  Thess.  2  :  13. 

'  *'  Yea,  I  have  loved  thee  with  an  everlasting  love, 

52 


lueror. 


THE    CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

Thus,  while  Calvinism  abases  man  as  a  "  More  than 
sinner,  it  glorifies  him  in  Christ  as  a  be-  '^'''^^^ 
liever,  lifts  him  to  inconceivable  exaltation, 
commands  the  universe  for  him.  His  feet 
plucked  from  the  horrible  pit  and  planted 
on  the  Eternal  Rock,  his  heart  thrilled  with 
an  adoring  gratitude,  his  soul  conscious  of 
a  Divine  love  that  will  never  forsake  him 
and  a  Divine  energy  that  in  him  and 
through  him  is  working  out  eternal  pur- 
poses of  good,^^  he  is  girded  with  invinci- 
ble strength.  In  a  nobler  sense  than  Na- 
poleon ever  dreamed,  he  knows  himself  to 
be  a  "  man  of  destiny  ".  Alone  among  men 
he  may  be,  but  only  more  consciously  allied 
with  God.  Danger  may  meet  him,  but 
without  God's  permission  it  cannot  touch 
him.  Death  may  threaten,  but  he  is  im- 
mortal till  his  work  is  done.  Feeble  his 
strength  and  fruitless  his  efiforts  may  ap- 
pear,  but   put    forth   in    accordance   with 

therefore  with  loving  kindness  have  I  drawn  thee," 
Jer.  3T  :  3- 

2*"  [t  is  God  which  worketh  in  you  both  to  will 
and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure."     Phil.  2  :  13. 

53 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

God's  command  they  are  the  predestmed 
means  to  the  predestined  end.  Hence  to 
his  work  and  warfare  he  goes  forth  shielded 
by  a  panoply  more  invulnerable,  and  nerved 
by  a  courag-e  more  unconquerable,  than 
any  other  faith  could  bestow. 

2.  The  actual  fruits  of  Calvinism,  as  set 
forth    in    history,    are    precisely  -  what   we 
should  expect  from  the  character  of  its  doc- 
trines. 
Unequalled        Calviuism   has    nerved    more    men    and 
ml'ri'rs         womcu  to  die  for  Christ,  with  thanksgiving 
in  their  hearts  and  psalms  upon  their  lips, 
than  any  other  creed.    Its  unequalled  array 
of  martyrs  is  one  of  its  crowns  of  glory. 
As  the  Methodist  Conference  said,  in  its 
address    to   the    Presbyterian   Alliance    of 
1896:     "  Your  Church  has  furnished  the 
memorable  and  inspiriting  spectacle,  not 
simply  of  a  solitary  heroic  soul  here  and 
there,  but  of  generations  of  faithful  souls 
ready  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  His  truth 
to  go  cheerfully  to  prison  and  to  death. 
This  rare  honor  you  rightly  esteem  as  the 
54 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS    FRUITS 

most  precious  part  of  your  priceless  herit- 
age." In  those  centuries,  when  spiritual 
tyranny  was  numbering  its  victims  by  the 
hundreds  of  thousands;  when  in  England, 
Scotland,  Switzerland,  Holland,  France, 
men  had  to  recant  their  faith  or  seal  their 
testimony  with  their  blood,  nearly  all  the 
martyrs  were  Calvinists.  Says  a  careful 
writer:  "  There  is  no  other  system  of  re- 
ligion in  the  world  which  has  such  a  glori- 
ous array  of  martyrs  to  the  faith.  Almost 
every  man  and  woman  who  walked  to  the 
flames  rather  than  deny  the  faith  or  leave 
a  stain  on  conscience  was  the  devout  fol- 
lower, not  only  and  first  of  all  of  the  Son  of 
God,  but  also  of  that  minister  of  God  who 
made  Geneva  the  light  of  Europe,  John 
Calvin."  25 

The  heroic  moral  energy  inspired  by  Cal-  "  Things 
vinism  has  been  the  admiration  of  histo- ""  "'f'^  "[f^^' 

natural, 

rians.  Motley,  the  famous  historian  of  the 
Dutch  Republic,  himself  allied  in  no  way 
with  Calvinism,  declares  that  "  the  doctrine 

^^McFetridge,  "Calvinism  in  History",  p.  113. 

55 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

of  predestination,  the  consciousness  of  be- 
ing chosen  soldiers  of  Christ,  inspired  the 
Puritans  (Calvinists)  who  founded  the  com- 
monwealths of  England,  of  Holland,  and  of 
America,  with  a  contempt  of  toil,  danger, 
and  death,  which  enabled  them  to  accom- 
plish things  almost  supernatural."  ^^  Its 
effect  he  describes  as  "  that  sublime  enthu- 
siasm which  on  either  side  the  ocean  ever 
confronted  tyranny  with  dauntless  front, 
and  welcomed  death  on  battlefield,  scaf- 
fold or  rack  with  perfect  composure."  ^^ 
*' Highest  John  Morlcy,  the  eminent  English  au- 

g  fines  9j    e  ^^^^  ^^^  Statesman,  being:  the  adherent  of 

human  con-  '  ^ 

science:'  no  religious  creed,  cannot  be  suspected  of 
theological  bias.  "  Calvinism ",  he  says, 
"  has  inspired  incomparable  energy,  con- 
centration, resolution."  "  It  has  exalted  its 
votaries  to  a  pitch  of  heroic  moral  energy 
that  has  never  been  surpassed."  "  They 
have  exhibited  an  active  courage,  a  resolute 
endurance,  a  cheerful  self-restraint,  an  ex* 

''^"The  United  Netherlands",  vol.  IV,  p.  54*» 

5^ 


THE  CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ulting-  self-sacrifice,  that  men  count  among 
the  highest  glories  of  the  human  con- 
science." ^^ 

The  late  James  Anthony  Froude  was  one  Fr0ude, 
of  England's  most  gifted  historians  and 
men  of  letters.  He  occupied  the  Chair  of 
History  at  Oxford,  England's  greatest  uni- 
versity. The  ignorant  attacks  upon  Calvin- 
ism which  have  been  the  fashion  in  recent 
years  excited  in  him.  the  scholar's  just  im- 
patience. Against  the  inferences  and  mis- 
representations of  prejudice  he  set  the  ver- 
dict of  history.  From  partisan  logic  he  ap- 
pealed to  facts.  Himself  not  theologically 
committed  in  any  way  as  regards  Calvin- 
ism, his  impartiality  is  as  far  above  suspi- 
cion as  his  ability  and  learning  are  beyond 
question. 

**  I  am  going  to  ask  you  ",  says  Froude,  The  appeal 
"to  consider,  if  Calvinism  be,  as  we  are  ^'^Z'*''^"^* 
told,  fatal  to  morality,  how  it  came  to  pass 
that   the   first   symptom   of  its   operation, 

28  "Oliver   Cromwell",    The  Century  Magazine,  De- 
cember, 1899. 

57 


THE   CREED   TESTED  BY   ITS   FRUITS 

wherever  it  established  itself,  was  to  oblit- 
erate the  distinction  between  sins  and 
crimes,  and  to  make  the  moral  law  the  rule 
of  life  for  States  as  well  as  persons?  I  shall 
ask  you,  again,  why,  if  it  be  a  creed  of  in- 
tellectual servitude,  it  was  able  to  inspire 
and  maintain  the  bravest  efiforts  ever  made 
to  break  the  yoke  of  unjust  authority? 
When  all  else  has  failed;  when  patriotism 
has  covered  its  face,  and  human  courage 
has  broken  down;  when  intellect  has 
yielded,  as  Gibbon  says,  '  with  a  smile  or 
a  sigh ',  content  to  philosophize  in  the 
closet  or  abroad  worship  with  the  vulgar; 
when  emotion,  and  sentiment,  and  tender 
imaginative  piety  have  become  the  hand- 
maids of  superstition,  and  have  dreamt 
themselves  into  forgetfulness  that  there  is 
any  difiference  between  lies  and  truth,  the 
slavish  form  of  belief  called  Calvinism,  in 
one  or  other  of  its  many  forms,  has  borne 
ever  an  inflexible  front  to  illusion  and  men- 
dacity, and  has  preferred  rather  to  be 
ground  to  powder  like  flint  than  to  bend 
58 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

before  violence  or  melt  under  enervating 
temptation."  ^^ 

"  The  Calvinists ",  says  Froude,  "  ab- 
horred, as  no  body  of  men  ever  more  ab- 
horred, all  conscious  mendacity,  all  impur 
ity,  all  moral  wrong  of  every  kind  so  far  as 
they  could  recognize  it.  Whatever  exists 
at  this  moment  in  England  and  Scotland  of 
conscientious  fear  of  doing  evil  is  the  rem-  " 
nant  of  the  convictions  which  were  branded 
by  the  Calvinists  into  the  people's  hearts."  ^^ 

As  illustrating  the  type  of  character  pro-  r^^p^  of 
duced  by  Calvinism,  Froude  names  Will-  <:haracter 
iam  the  Silent,  Luther,^^  Knox,  Andrew 
Melville,  the  Regent  Murray,  CoHgny, 
Cromwell,  Milton,  Bunyan.  ''  These  were 
men  ",  he  says,  "  possessed  of  all  the  quali- 
ties which  give  nobility  and  grandeur  to 
human  nature — men  whose  life  was  as  up- 
right as  their  intellect  was  commanding 


"*'  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects",  p.  13. 
»«Id..p.  50. 

'^  Luther's  doctrine  of  Divine  Grace,  Sovereignty, 
and  Predestination  was  thoroughly  Calvinistic. 

59 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

and  their  public  aims  untainted  with  selfish- 
ness; unalterably  just  where  duty  required' 
them  to  be  stern,  but  with  the  tenderness  of 
a  woman  in  their  hearts;  frank,  true,  cheer- 
ful, humorous,  as  unlike  sour  fanatics  as  it 
is  possible  to  imagine  any  one,  and  able  in 
some  way  to  sound  the  keynote  to  which 
every  brave  and  faithful  heart  in  Europe  in- 
stinctively vibrated."  ^^ 
'{istory  vs.  With  thcsc  deliberate  statements  of  Ox- 
fiaion.  ford's  great  Professor  of  History,  compare 

the  representations  of  those  popular  pro- 
fessional story-tellers,  whose  only  weapon 
is  caricature,  and  in  whose  novels  the  Cal- 
vinistic  characters  are  nearly  all  oddities, 
cranks,  fanatics,  fools,  or  savages. 
Prejudice  vs.  Yov  the  enlightenment  of  the  critics  of 
Calvinism,  Froude  adds,  "  Grapes  do  not 
grow  on  bramble-bushes.  Illustrious  na- 
tures do  not  form  themselves  on  narrow 
and  cruel  theories.  Where  we  find  a  heroic 
life  appearing  as  the  uniform  fruit  of  a  par- 
ticular mode  of  opinion,  it  is  childish  to 

'2  ♦*  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects  ",  p.  14. 
60 


fact. 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY    ITS    FRUITS 

argue  in  the  face  of  fact  that  the  result 
ought  to  have  been  different."  ^^ 

As  a  complement  to  the  masculine  illus-  Caivinistu 
trations  cited  by  Froude  of  the  Calvinistic  '^"^'^^hood. 
character,  we  quote  the  following  from  Dr. 
L.  P.  Bowen:  "  Calvinism  has  moulded 
God's  own  type  of  womanhood;  worth 
without  vanity,  self-sacrifice  without  self- 
righteousness,  zealous  service  without  im- 
modesty, strong  convictions  without  ef- 
frontery, human  loveliness  heig'htened  and 
softened  by  heavenly-mindedness."  "  The 
world  has  never  known ",  says  an  able 
modern  scholar,  ''  a  higher  type  of  robust 
and  sturdy  manhood,  nor  a  gentler,  purer, 
or  more  lovable  womanhood,  than  have 
prevailed  among  those  peoples  who  have 
imbibed  the  principles  of  the  Calvinistic 
creed,  with  its  commingled  elements  of 
granitic  strength  and  stability,  and  of  su- 
preme, because  Divine,  tenderness  and 
grace."  ^4 

'"'Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects",  p.  14. 
"Wilson's  "Theology  of  Modern  Literature  *',  p. 
278. 

61 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS  FRUITS 

The  best  To  the  Unequalled  excellence  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  type  of  character,  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica^^  bears  unwilling  witness.  In 
its  prejudiced  article  on  '.'  Predestination  " 
it  ''  feels  bound  in  justice  to  make  this  re- 
mark ",  th^t  Calvinists  have  been  "  the 
highest  honor  of  their  own  ages  and  the 
best  models  for  imitation  for  every  succeed- 
ing age." 
*\Monumeny     Said   Henry  Ward  Beecher,  in  one  of 

tal  ina>ble'\      .,  r     i  •  •  n  -\  ir 

the  sermons  of  his  pnme:  Men  may 
talk  as  much  as  they  please  against  the 
Calvinists  and  Puritans  and  Presbyterians, 
but  you  will  find  when  they  want  to  make 
an  investment  they  have  no  objection  to 
Calvinism  or  Puritanism  or  Presbyte- 
rianism.  They  know  that  where  these 
systems  prevail,  where  the  doctrine  of 
men's  obligation  to  God  and  man  is 
taught  and  practiced,  there  their  capital 
may  be  safely  invested;"  ''  They  tell  us  ", 
he  continues,  "  that  Calvinism  plies  men 

'*  Early  edition,  quoted  in  Smyth's  "  Ecclesiastical 
Republicanism",  p.  310. 

62 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

with  hammer  and  with  chisel.  It  does;  and 
the  result  is  monumental  marble.  Other 
systems  leave  men  soft  and  dirty;  Calvin- 
ism makes  them  of  white  marble,  to  endure 
forever." 

The  vast  knowledge  and  piercing  insight '' Noblest  ic. 
,  of  Thomas  Carlyle  none  will  dispute.  His  ^^'  ^^^''^^•" 
mature  conclusion,  after  a  lifetime  of  his- 
torical and  biographical  study,  was  that 
"  Calvinism  had  produced  in  all  countries 
in  which  it  really  dominated  a  definite  type 
of  character  and  conception  of  morals 
which  was  the  noblest  that  had  yet  ap- 
peared in  the  world."  ^^ 

A  review  of  the  peoples  and  communities 
whose  character  Calvinism  has  moulded 
will  attest  the  truth  of  Carlyle's  conclusion. 

IN   ENGLAND. 

Consider  that  noble  body  of  English  Cal-  The  English 
vmists  w'hose  msistence  upon  a  purer  torm 
of  worship  and  a  purer  life  won  for  them 

^W.  H.  Lecky's  "  The  Map  of  Life",  1900,. p.  51. 
63 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

th€  nickname,  Puritans,  "  perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  body  of  men  ",  says  Macaulay, 
*'  which  the  world  has  ever  produced."  ^^ 
Out  of  their  "  impassioned  Calvinism  ",  as 
Taine  describes  their  faith,  sprang  their 
adoring  love  and  reverence  for  God.  Sov- 
ereign in  right  and  in  fact  He  was  to  them. 
**  To  know  Him,  to  serve  Him,  to  enjoy 
Him  '*,  says  Macaulay,  ''  was  with  them  the 
great  end  of  existence."  ^^ 

"  This  was  all  their  care, 
To  stand  approved  in  sight  of  God,  tho'  worlds 
Judged  them  perverse." 

"  Their  theory  of  life  ",  says  Bayne,  "  was 
that  man's  chief  end  is  not  to  amuse  or  to 
be  amused,  not  to  create  or  experience  sen- 
sation, but  to  glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  Him 
forever."  ^^  They  were  men  of  "  celestial 
purpose,  of  hallowed  imagination,  of  faith 
in  the  Unseen,  the  Eternal,  the  Divine." 
Tke  Puritan      Unsympathetic  and  prejudiced  as  Taine 

consdeme. 

'■^  Essay  on  Milton. 

'•Id. 

••"  English  Puritanism."     Introduction,  p.  65. 

64 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

is,  a  skeptic  in  religion,  though  a  genius  in 
letters  and  the  greatest  historian  of  Eng- 
lish literature,  he  cannot  but  wonder  at 
the  elevation  and  energy  of  the  Puritan 
conscience.  "  Strict  in  every  duty  ",  he  de- 
scribes it,  ''  attentive  to  the  least  require- 
ments; disdaining  the  equivocations  of 
worldly  morality,  inexhaustible  in  patience, 
courage,  sacrifice;  enthroning  purity  on  the 
domestic  hearth,  truth  in  the  tribunal, 
probity  in  the  counting-hous^,  and  labor 
in  the  workshop."  ^^  In  his  "  History  of  the 
English  People  ",  Green  marks  with  admi- 
ration their  "  implicit  obedience  to  the  Di- 
vine will  alone  ",  their  "  moral  grandeur  ", 
their  "  manly  purity  ". 

Army  life  is  notoriously  a  school  of  vice,  r/ir  Puritan 
It  is  the  crucial  test  of  morals  and  religion,  '^^^y- 
But  the  Puritan  army  has  been  the  wonder 
of  the  world  as  well  for  its  moral  purity  as 
its  invincible  valor.  Says  Taine,  ''  a  perfect 
Christian  made  a  perfect  soldier."  Through 
all  that  army  breathed  the  martyr  spirit  of 

****  Hist.  Eng.  Literature"  (Alden),  vol.  i.  p.  473. 
6s 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

their  creed.  Of  their  own  accord  they  put 
their  lives  in  jeopardy  for  the  liberties  and 
religion  of  England.  Oliver  Cromwell, 
their  leader,  Goldwin  Smith  pronounces 
"  the  greatest  single  force  ever  directed  to 
a  moral  purpose  ".  "  Upon  the  solid  rock 
of  Calvinistic  faith  ",  says  Morley,  ''  Crom- 
well had  established  himself."  ^^  Upon  the 
same  rock  his  soldiers  had  planted  them- 
selves. The  result  was  an  army  whose 
equal  for  purity  and  heroism  the  world  has 
never  seen. 
''Quit  you  ''ix  never  found",  says  Macaulay,  "either 
strons^ "  '  ^^  ^^^  British  Islands  or  on  the  Continent, 
an  enemy  who  could  stand  its  onset.  In 
England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Flanders,  the 
Puritan  warriors,  often  surrounded  by  diffi- 
culties, sometimes  contending  against 
threefold  odds,  not  only  never  failed  to 
conquer,  but  never  failed  to  destroy  and 
break  in  pieces  whatever  force  was  opposed 
to  them.     They  at  length  came  to  regard 

*i"  Cromwell",    The   Century  Magazine,  December, 
1899. 

66 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY    ITS   FRUITS 

the  day  of  battle  as  a  day  of  certain  tri- 
umph, and  marched  against  the  most  re- 
nowned battaHons  of  Europe  with  disdain- 
ful confidence.  Even  the  banished  Cava- 
liers felt  an  emotion  of  national  pride  when 
they  saw  a  brigade  of  their  countrymen, 
outnumbered  by  foes  and  abandoned  by 
friends,  drive  before  it  in  headlong  rout  the 
finest  infantry  of  Spain,  and  force  a  passage 
into  a  counterscarp  which  had  just  been 
pronounced  impregnable  by  the  ablest  of 
the  Marshals  of  France."  ^^ 

''  But  that  which  chiefly  distinguished  Chief  dis- 
the  army  of  Cromwell  from  other  armies  ",  ^^^'^^^°^' 
says  Macaulay,  "  was  the  austere  morality 
and  the  fear  of  God  which  pervaded  all 
ranks.  It  is  acknowledged  by  the  most 
zealous  Royalists  that,  in  that  singular 
camp,  no  oath  was  heard,  no  drunkenness 
or  gambling  was  seen,  and  that,  during  the 
long  dominion  of  the  soldiery,  the  property 
of  the  peaceable  citizens  and  the  honor  of 
woman  were  held  sacred.     No  servant  girl 

**  "  Hist.  Eng.",  vol.  i.  p.  119. 

67 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   lUUilS 

complained  of  the  rough  gallantry  of  the 
redcoats.  Not  an  ounce  of  plate  was  taken 
from  the  shops  of  the  goldsmiths."  ^^  Says 
Taine:  "  They  raised  the  national  morality, 
as  they  had  saved  the  national  liberty."  *^ 
Tried  with  gut    3.    stcmer   test    than    that    of    war 

awaited  the  Calvinistic  warriors,  and  a  yet 
nobler  proof  they  were  to  give  of  the  un- 
rivalled strength  of  a  Calvinistic  manhood. 
The  Protectorate  having  come  to  an  end, 
the  army  was  dissolved.  The  old  veterans 
were  turned  loose  to  shift  for  themselves 
amid  the  myriad  temptations  of  that  seven- 
teenth century  England,  where  beggary  was 
a  recognized  and  popular  profession,  where 
the  poHce  machinery  even  of  the  metrop- 
olis was  "  utterly  contemptible  ",^^  and 
where  theft  and  robbery  offered  to  every 
able-bodied  man  a  safe  and  easy  means  of 
support.  But  though  disbanded  suddenly, 
and    without    resources,    "  they    did    not 

*"'  H>«5t.  Eng.",  vol.  I.  p.  119. 

**'•  Hist.  Eng.  Litftrat'jre"  (Alden).  vol.  i.  p.  482. 
**Macaulay's  "  Hist.  Eng",  vol.  I.  p.  32f- 
68 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUH^ 

bring  ",  says  Taine,  ''  a  single  recruit  to  the 
vagabonds  and  bandits."  *^  ''  Fifty  thou- 
sand veterans  ",  says  Macaulay,  ''  accus- 
tomed to  the  profession  of  arms,  were  at 
once  thrown  on  the  world:  and  experience 
seemed  to  warrant  the  belief  that  this 
change  would  produce  much  misery  and 
crime,  that  the  discharged  veterans  would 
be  seen  begging  in  every  street,  or  that 
they  would  be  driven  by  hunger  to  pillage. 
But  no  such  result  followed.  In  a  few  "  Coming 
months  there  remained  not  a  trace  that  the  -^^^^^  ^^ 

gold," 

most  formidable  army  in  the  world  had  just 
been  absorbed  into  the  mass  of  the  com- 
munity. The  Royalists  themselves  con- 
fessed that  in  every  department  of  honest 
industry  the  discarded  warriors  prospered 
beyond  other  men,  that  none  was  charged 
with  any  theft  or  robbery,  that  none  was 
heard  to  ask  an  alms,  and  that  if  a  baker,  a 
mason,  or  a  wagoner  attracted  notice  by  his 
diligence  and  sobriety,  he  was  in  all  proba- 
bility one  of  Oliver's  old  soldiers."  *^ 

^*"Hist.  Eng.  Literature"  (Alden),  vol.  i.  p.  482. 
*'"  Hist.  Eng.",  vol.  i.  p.  147. 
69 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 


Historical 

demonstra- 
tion. 


"  Imstiraa- 
ble  obliga- 
tions.^' 


The  above  remarkable  narrative,  which 
from  first  to  last  we  have  sketched  as  far  as 
possible  in  the  very  words  of  eminent  and 
trustworthy  authors,  is  a  striking  demon- 
stration from  history  of  the  supreme  char- 
acter-making power  of  Calvinism.  The 
picture  here  presented  of  the  character  of 
the  Puritans  is  in  accord  with  the  latest  his- 
torical investigations.  Of  the  two  admir- 
able lives  of  Cromwell  issued  in  1900,  the 
able  reviewer  of  The  Independent  says:  ''  In 
both  authors  the  Puritan  character  stands 
out  towering  above  the  age  that  gave  it 
birth,  and  an  inspiration  and  an  ideal  to  all 
ages  that  follow  after."  ^^ 

But  in  producing  the  Puritans,  Calvin- 
ism has  not  only  proved  its  power,  it  has 
laid  the  modern  world  under  what  Macau- 
lay  rightly  terms  "  inestimable  obliga- 
tions ".^^  Those  English  Calvinists  did  not 
labor  and  die  for  themselves  alone.    They 


**  The  Independent,  Nov.  15,  1900,  p.  2748. 
*•  Essay  on  Milton. 

70 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

stood  in  the  breach  for  all  succeeding  gen- 
erations. 

Says  Prof.  John  Fiske,  the  profoundest  Human 
philosopher  as  he  is  the  finest  literary  artist  ^^^'^^y* 
among  the  historical  writers  of  America: 
"  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century  the  entire  political  future 
of  mankind  was  staked  upon  the  questions 
that  were  at  issue  in  England.  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  Puritans,  political  liberty 
would  probably  have  disappeared  from  the 
world.  If  ever  there  were  men  who  laid 
down  their  lives  in  the  cause  of  all  mankind, 
it  was  those  grim  old  Ironsides,  whose 
watch-words  were  texts  of  Holy  Writ, 
whose  battle-cries  were  hymns  of  praise."^^ 

Since  the  Genevan  reformer  was  *'  incon- 
testably  the  father  of  the  English  Puri- 
tans ",^^  no  man  can  deny  the  justice  of 
Fiske's  conclusion  that  ''  it  would  be  hard 
to  overrate  the  debt  which  mankind  owe  to 
Calvin  ". 

^  "  The  Beginnings  of  New  England  ",  pp.  37,  51. 
"  Dyer's  "  Modern  Europe  ",  vol.  11.  p.  130. 

71 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 


Anglo-Saxon 
Protestant- 
ism, 


But  political  liberty  is  only  a  part  of  our 
Puritan  heritage.  Says  Bancroft:  "That 
the  English  people  became  Protestant  is 
due  to  the  Puritans." ^^  The  significance  of 
this  fact  is  beyond  computation.  English 
Protestantism,  with  its  open  Bible,  its  spir- 
itual and  intellectual  freedom,  meant  the 
Protestantism  not  only  of  the  American 
colonies,  but  of  that  virile  and  multiplying 
race  which  for  three  centuries  has  been 
carrying  the  Anglo-Saxon  language,  re- 
ligion, and  institutions  into  all  the  world. 

As  the  Puritans  saved  England  to  Protes- 
tantism, so  the  Calvinists  in  general  saved 
Protestantism  to  the  world.  "  Whatever 
was  the  cause  ",  says  Froude,  "  the  Calvin- 
ists were  the  only  fighting  Protestants.  It 
was  they  whose  faith  gave  them  courage  to 
stand  up  for  the  Reformation,  and  but  for 
them  the  Reformation  would  have  been 
crushed." 

A  third  "  inestimable  obligation "  we 
should  never  forget.    Says  Green:  "  Home, 

"  "  Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  T.  p.  289. 

72 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

as  we  conceive  it  now,  was  the  creation  of 
the  Puritan."  ^^  In  an  age  when  woman 
was  the  slave,  the  idol,  or  the  toy  of  man; 
when  adultery  was  a  jest  and  indecency  a 
fashion;  when  even  in  the  domestic  circle 
the  worst  vices  were  practiced,  then  it  was 
that  Calvinism,  by  its  moral  purity,  its 
sanctification  of  the  marriage  covenant  as 
the  symbol  of  the  behever's  relation  to 
Christ,  its  belief  in  the  sublime  possibilities 
of  every  individual,  woman  and  child  as  well 
as  man,  created  out  of  a  corrupt  society 
that  shrine  of  affection,  that  school  of  vir- 
tue, that  radiant  centre  of  every  holy  influ- 
ence, the  Christian  Home. 

Of  such  beneficent  and  lasting  products  Surnrfiaiy, 
of  Puritanism,  Lowell  might  well  have  been 
thinking  when  he  declared  that  "  the  em- 
bodiment in  human  institutions  of  truths 
uttered  by  the  Son  of  man  eighteen  cen- 
turies ago  was  to  be  mainly  the  work  of 
Puritan    thought    and    Puritan    self-devo- 

*"'  Hist.  Eng.  People",  vol.  in.  p.  414. 
73 


THE   CREED  TESTED  BY  ITS   FRUITS 

tion."  ^^     Surely  it  should  stop  the  mouths 
of  the  detractors  of  Calvinism  to  remember 
that  from  men  of  that  creed  we  inherit,  as 
the    fruit    of   their   blood    and    toil,    their 
prayers  and  teachings,  our  civil  liberty,  our 
Protestant  faith,  our  Christian  homes. 
Calvinism         The  thoughtful  reader,  noting  that  these 
tian  civi'iiza-  ^^^^^  blcssiugs  He  at  the  root  of  all  that  is 
Hon,  best  and  greatest  in  the  modern  world,  may 

be  startled  at  the  implied  claim  that  our 
present  Christian  civilization  is  but  the 
fruitage  of  Calvinism.  Yet  it  is  even  so. 
The  historian  Green,  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  of  England,  states  both  the  fact  and 
its  explanation  when  he  deliberately  de- 
clares: "  It  is  in  Calvinism  that  the  modern 
world  strikes  its  roots;  for  it  was  Calvinism 
that  first  revealed  the  worth  and  dignity  of 

IN  HOLLAND. 

A  bright  Another  glorious  chapter  in  the  history 

^"      ""  ^     of  Calvinism  and  humanity,  though  written 

**  "  Lowell's  Prose  Works  ",  vol.  ii.  p.  2. 
^"  Hist.  Eng.  People  ",  vol.  iii.  p.  114. 

74 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

in  blood,  is  the  record  of  the  long  struggle 
of  the  Hollanders  for  civil  and  religious 
freedom  against  the  gigantic  power  of 
Spain.  For  eighty  years  the  strongest  na- 
tion in  the  world  labored  with  all  its  might 
to  crush  well-nigh  the  smallest,  and  failed. 
Says  Douglas  Campbell,  in  his  massive  and 
masterly  work  on  "  The  Puritan  in  Hol- 
land, England,  and  America  ":  "  The  Puri- 
tans of  Holland  battled  for  their  liberties 
during  four  fifths  of  a  century,  facing  not 
alone  the  bravest  and  best-trained  soldiers 
of  the  age,  but  flames,  the  gibbet,  flood, 
siege,  pestilence,  and  famine.  Every  atroc- 
ity that  religious  fanaticism  could  invent, 
every  horror  that  ever  followed  in  the  train 
of  war,  swept  over  and  desolated  their 
land."  ^^  Holland  was  made  a  spectacle  to 
all  nations  by  her  sufferings,  and  surpassed 
all  other  Christian  communities  in  the  num- 
ber and  steadfastness  of  her  martyrs.^^   The 

"  Vol.  I.  p.  133. 

""The  Universal  Cyclopedia  ",  Article  "Calvin- 
ism ". 

75 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

Duke  of  Alva  boasted  that  within  the  short 
space  of  five  years  he  had  dehvered  18,600 
heretics  to  the  executioner.  ''  The  scaf- 
fold ",  says  Motley,  "  had  its  daily  victims, 
but  did  not  make  a  single  convert.  .  .  , 
There  were  men  who  dared  and  suffered  as 
much  as  men  can  dare  and  suffer  in  this 
world,  and  for  the  noblest  cause  that  can 
inspire  humanity."  His  pages  picture  to 
us  ''  the  heroism  with  which  men  took  each 
other  by  the  hand  and  walked  into  the 
flames,  or  with  which  women  sang  a  song 
of  triumph  while  the  grave-digger  was 
shovelling  the  earth  upon  their  living 
faces." 

In  the  siege  of  Leyden  we  have  a  thrilling 
example  of  their  sufferings  and  heroism. 
Three  months  after  the  commencement  of 
the  siege  the  food-supply  was  exhausted. 
A  fearful  famine  began  to  rage.  For  seven 
weeks  the  inhabitants  had  no  bread  to  eat 
and  multitudes  perished  of  hunger.  On 
the  heels  of  the  famine  came  the  plague  or 
black  death,  which  carried  of?  a  third  part 
76 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

of  the  citizens.  The  apparently  doomed 
survivors  subsisted  on  dogs  and  cats.  To 
the  summons  to  surrender,  they  rephed: 
"  As  long  as  you  hear  the  mew  of  a  cat  or 
the  bark  of  a  dog  you  may  know  that  the 
city  holds  out.  And  when  all  have  perished 
but  ourselves,  we  will  devour  our  left  arms, 
retaining  our  right  to  defend  our  women, 
our  liberty,  and  our  religion  against  the  for- 
eign tyrant."  When  at  last  relief  came  they 
were  almost  starved  to  death.  They  could 
scarcely  drag  themselves  along.  Yet  all  to 
a  man  staggered  or  crawled  as  best  they 
could  to  the  house  of  prayer.  There  on 
their  knees  they  gave  thanks  to  God.  But 
when  they  tried  to  utter  their  gratitude  in 
psalms  of  praise  they  were  almost  voiceless, 
for  there  was  no  strength  left  in  them,  and 
the  tones  of  their  song  died  away  in  grate- 
ful sobbing  and  weeping. 

In  that  awful  and  protracted  struggle,  "/« z^/?/: 
which   Campbell   pronounces  ''  a  war  un-  ^^"''- ' 
paralleled   in   the    history   of   arms ",    the 
Dutch  patriots  had  their  feet  planted  on 
77 


THE   CREED  TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

that  rock  on  which  Cromwell  and  his  Iron- 
sides in  the  next  century  established  them- 
selves— "  the  solid  rock  of  Calvinistic 
faith  ".  "  Calvinism  ",  says  Bancroft,  him- 
self ecclesiastically  allied  in  no  way  with 
that  faith,  "  inspired  Holland  with  a  heroic 
enthusiasm  ".  None  but  ''  zealous  Calvin- 
ists  ",  as  Campbell  calls  them,  could  have 
suffered  and  endured  and  fought  and 
wrought  as  they  did.  "  In  the  moral  war- 
fare for  freedom  ",  says  Bancroft,  "  their 
creed  was  a  part  of  their  army  and  their 
most  faithful  ally  in  the  battle."  ^«  This  it 
was,  as  Motley  has  already  told  us,  that 
*'  inspired  them  with  a  contempt  for  toil, 
danger,  and  death  which  enabled  them  to 
accomplish  things  almost  supernatural." 

The  illustrious  Dutch  leader,  William  the 
Silent,  Prince  of  Orange,  though  reared  in 
another  faith,  was  forced  by  the  intensity 
of  his  trials  and  the  immensity  of  his  re- 
sponsibilities to  flee  to  Calvinism  for  rest 
and  refuge.     In  its  great  Scripture  doc- 

w  "  Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  I.  p.  464. 
78 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

trines  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty  and  Gov- 
ernment his  suffering  soul  found  peace  and 
strength.  He  became  a  devout  Calvinist; 
and  ''  from  this  time  forth  ",  says  Motley, 
*'  he  began  calmly  to  rely  upon  God's 
Providence  in  all  the  emergencies  of  his 
eventful  life."  ^» 

The  Calvinistic  conscience  was  as  much  Caivinistu 
in  evidence  among  the  Dutch  as  among  the  ^^^'^^^^'^^ 
English  Puritans.  Says  an  Italian  con- 
temporary, "  They  hold  adultery  in  hor- 
ror." ''They  dispensed  exact  justice",  says 
Campbell,  ''  to  poor  and  rich  alike,  cared 
for  the  unfortunate,  and  frowned  on  idle- 
ness and  vice."  "  No  one  ever  questioned 
their  integrity.  Public  honesty  is  of  later 
growth  than  that  of  individuals,  men  in  a 
body  often  performing  acts  which  singly 
they  would  condemn;  but  even  here  Hol- 
land has  no  superior  in  history.  Through- 
out her  long  war  with  Spain,  the  national 
credit  stood  unimpaired.    The  towns,  when 

••  •*  Rise  of  Dutch  Republic  ",  vol.  i.  p.  699, 

79 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 


Results, 


QintphelVs 
statement. 


besieged,  issued  bonds  which  often  were 
sold  at  a  large  discount,  and  men  were 
found  who,  as  in  later  times  among  our- 
selves, urged  that  the  purchasers  should 
only  receive  the  money  they  had  paid.  No 
such  counsels,  however,  prevailed  in  a  sin- 
gle instance.  The  debts  of  the  towns,  like 
those  of  the  State,  were  invariably  paid  in 
full."  «^ 

Of  the  results  to  civilization  and  human- 
ity of  that  momentous  conflict,  which,  in 
the  strength  of  their  creed,  the  Dutch  Cal- 
vinists  fought  and  won,  we  shall  submit 
three  brief  summaries,  each  by  an  acknowl- 
edged master  of  historical  learning. 

Says  Campbell:  "  Out  from  this  war  of 
eighty  years'  duration  emerged  a  republic, 
for  two  centuries  the  greatest  in  the  world, 
a  republic  which  was  the  instructor  of  the 
world  in  art,  and  whose  corner-stone  was 
religious  toleration  for  all  mankind."  ^^ 


•®"The   Puritan  in  Holland,  England  and  Amer- 
ica", vol.  I.  pp.  87,  171. 
"•'Id.,  p.  133. 

80 


THE   CREED   TESlED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

The  above  solid  historical  fact  effectually  a  theory  tr 
disposes  of  the  theory  that  Calvinism  makes  P^^^^'^- 
men  haters  of  art  or  persecutors  of  their 
fellows.  Whatever  share  Calvinists  have 
had  in  the  mistakes  and  superstitions  of 
their  age  and  race  cannot  be  charged  to 
their  theological  tenets.  The  Calvinistic 
zeal  of  the  Dutch  is  beyond  question,  yet 
they  burned  no  witches,  they  led  the  world 
in  art,  and  before  William  Penn  was  born, 
taught  and  practiced  the  widest  rehgious 
toleration.  "  In  freedom  of  conscience  ", 
says  Bancroft,  *'  they  were  the  light  of  the 
world."  ®2  The  true  father  of  modern  re- 
ligious liberty  was  the  immortal  Dutch  Cal- 
vinist,  William  the  Silent. 

Motley's  deliberate  verdict  is  as  folio ws :  3/#//<yV 
"  Few  strides  more  gigantic  have  been  verdict, 
taken  in  the  march  of  humanity  than  those 
by  which  a  parcel  of  outlying  provinces  in 
the  north  of  Europe  exchanged  slavery  to 
a  foreign  despotism  and  to  the  Holy  In- 
quisition for  the  position  of  a  self-govern- 

WHist.  U.  S.",  vol.  X.  p.  58 

81 


THE   CREED  TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ing  commonwealth,  in  the  front  rank  of 
contemporary  powers,  and  in  many  respects 
the  foremost  of  the  world.  It  is  impossible 
to  calculate  the  amount  of  benefit  rendered 
to  civilization  by  the  example  of  the  Dutch 
Republic."  ^^ 

Bancroft's  The  following  is  Bancroft's  estimate  of 
what  Calvinistic  Holland  has  done  for  the 
world:  "  Of  all  the  branches  of  the  Ger- 
manic family  that  nation  has  endured  the 
most  and  wrought  the  most  in  favor  of  lib- 
erty of  conscience,  liberty  of  commerce,  and 
liberty  in  the  State.  For  three  generations 
the  best  interests  of  mankind  were  aban- 
doned to  its  keeping;  and  to  uphold  the 
highest  objects  of  spiritual  life,  its  mer- 
chants, land  holders,  and  traders  so  teemed 
with  heroes  and  martyrs  that  they  tired  out 
brute  force,  and  tyranny,  and  death  itself, 
and  from  war  educed  life  and  hope  for  com- 
ing ages."  ^* 

Another dem-      Here,  then,  from  history,  we  have  a?).- 

onstration. 

«*  "  The  United  Netherlands  ",  vol.  IV.  p.  549 
•*"Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  X.  p.  58. 
d>2 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

other  demonstration  of  the  unequalled  en- 
ergizing and  ennobling  power  of  Calvin- 
ism. Above  all  the  other  doctrinal  systems 
known  to  man,  history  crowns  Calvinism 
as  the  creed  of  saints  and  heroes.  To  its 
Divine  vitality  and  fruitfulness  the  modern 
world  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude,  which 
slowly  in  recent  years  it  is  beginning  to 
recognize,  but  can  never  pay. 

IN    FRANCE. 

In  France  the  Calvinists  were  called  The  Hugue- 
Huguenots.  The  character  of  the  Hugue-  ^''^^' 
nots  the  world  knows.  Their  moral  purity 
and  heroism,  whether  persecuted  at  home 
or  exiled  abroad,  has  been  the  wonder  of 
both  friend  and  foe.  "  Their  history  ",  says 
the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,^^  "  is  a  stand- 
ing marvel,  illustrating  the  abiding  power 
of  strong  religious  convictions  ".  ''  The 
account  of  their  endurance  ",  it  declares, 
"  is  amongst  the  most  remarkable  and  he- 
roic records  of  religious  history."  Accord- 
«*Art.  "  Huguenots." 

83 


THE  CREED  TESTED  BY   ITS   FRUFlo 

ing  to  the  great  historian  Lecky,  himself  a 
cold-blooded  rationalist,  the  Huguenots 
were  "  the  most  solid,  the  most  modest,  the 
most  virtuous,  the  most  generally  enlight- 
ened   element    in    the    French    nation."  *^ 

The  furious  persecution  that  raged 
against  them,  of  which  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew  was  a  part  and  a  sample,  de- 
stroyed or  exiled  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Huguenots.  The  loss  to  France  was  irrep- 
arable. ''  It  prepared  the  way ",  says 
Lecky,  "  for  the  inevitable  degradation  of 
the  national  character  and  removed  the  last 
serious  bulwark  that  might  have  broken  the 
force  of  that  torrent  of  skepticism  and  vice, 
which,  a  century  later,  laid  prostrate  in 
merited  ruin,  both  the  altar  and  the  throne." 

"Looking  back",  says  an  able  writer,  "at 
their  sufferings,  at  the  purity,  self-denial, 
honesty,  and  industry  of  their  lives,  and  at 
the  devotion  with  which  they  adhered  to  re- 
ligious duty  and  the  worship  of  God,  we 

•«  *•  Eng.  Hist.  Eighteenth   Century  ",  vol.  i.  pp, 
264.  265. 

84 


THE    CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

cannot  fail  to  regard  them  as  amongst  the 
truest,  greatest,  and  worthiest  heroes  of 
their  age.  In  France  they  were  the  only 
men  who  were  willing  to  die  rather  than 
forsake  the  worship  of  God  according  to 
the  Scriptures  and  conscience."  ^^ 

To  be  ''  honest  as  a  Huguenot  "  became  ''Honest  as  i 
2l  proverb,  signalizing  the  highest  reach  of  ^^s^'^ot^'' 
integrity.  This  quality,  which  is  essential 
in  the  merchant  who  deals  with  foreigners 
whom  he  never  sees,  so  characterized  the 
business  transactions  of  the  Huguenots 
that  the  foreign  trade  of  the  country  fell  al- 
most entirely  into  their  hands.*^ 

The  eminent  English  writer,  Samuel  Eloquent 
Smiles,  known  to  thousands  of  Americans 
as  the  author  of  "  Self  Help  ",  states  that 
while  the  Huguenots  were  stigmatized  in 
the  contemporary  literature  of  their  ene- 
mies as  "  heretics  ",  "  atheists  ",  "  blasphe- 
mers ",  "  monsters  vomited  forth  of  hell  *', 
not  one  word  is  to  be  found  in  these  writ- 

*'  "  Calvinism  in  History",  p.  122. 
•*  Smiles'  "  The  Huguenots  ",  p.  I34„ 

85 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ings  in  impeachment  of  their  morality  and 
integrity.  "  The  silence  of  their  enemies 
on  this  point  ",  says  Smiles,  ''  is  perhaps 
the  most  eloquent  testimony  in  their  fa- 
vor." «9 
The  tree  i^  a  foot-note,  Smiles  makes  a  comment 

known  by  ,  .    ,     .        ^  •    i   •  •  r 

its  fruits  which  IS  oi  espccial  mterest  commg  from  a 
man  so  distinguished  for  accuracy  and 
sound  judgment,  and  who,  so  far  as  we  can 
learn,  was  committed  in  no  way  to  the 
cause  of  Calvinism.  "  What  the  Puritan 
was  in  England  ",  he  says,  ''  and  the  Cove- 
nanter in  Scotland,  that  the  Huguenot  was 
in  France;  and  that  the  system  of  Calvin 
should  have  developed  precisely  the  same 
kind  of  men  in  these  three  several  coun- 
tries afifords  a  remarkable  illustration  of 
the  power  of  religious  training  in  the  for- 
mation of  character."  ^^  Puritans,  Hugue- 
nots, Covenanters!  What  a  record  and  roll- 
^:all!  What  other  creed  in  Christendom  can 
show  such  a  marvellous  fruitage  of  purity 

•®  Smiles'  **  The  Huguenots  '%  p.  134. 
'®Id.,  p.  134,  note. 

86 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

and  heroism  as  these  historic  names  repre- 
sent? 

What  made  the  Huguenots  to  differ  from 
the  rest  of  French  Christendom?  They 
were  of  the  same  country,  the  same  race, 
the  same  natural  traits  and  pecuharities, 
oftentimes  of  the  same  household.  What 
made  the  difference?  Let  history  answer: 
"  the  system  of  Calvin  ". 

Near  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  ctn-  jansen's 
tury  a  Roman  CathoUc  Bishop  and  teacher  ^^^"•^^^''^^^ 
of  theology,  named  Jansen,  published  an 
exposition  of  the  works  of  St.  Augustine, 
the  gre'atest  of  the  Church  fathers.  Augus- 
tine's doctrines  of  sin,  sovereignty,  pre- 
destination, and  free  grace,  were  the  same 
as  those  taught  eleven  centuries  later  by 
Calvin,  and  four  centuries  earlier,  as  we  be- 
lieve, by  Paul.  To  quote  a  common  say- 
ing, Paul  begat  Augustine,  and  Augustine 
begat  Calvin. 

Jansen's  book  was  prohibited  by  a  decree 
of  the  Inquisition,  and  condemned  as  heret- 
S7 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 


The  Port      ical  by  the  Pope.    But  it  found  its  way  into 

iTnilts'"''  ^^"^  ^^"^^-  Especially  at  Port  Royal,  a 
Roman  Catholic  community  and  religious 
retreat  not  far  from  Paris,  it  was  ardently 
studied  and  its  doctrines  warmly  embraced. 
Immediately  Port  Royal  became  a  theo- 
logical storm-centre,  the  object  of  Jesuit 
hate  and  intrigue.  After  years  of  vicissi- 
tude and  trial  it  was  at  last  suppressed  by 
the  Papal  power,  but  not  till  Calvinism  had 
borne  its  characteristic  fruit,  and  made  Port 
Royal  the  synonym  to  succeeding  ages  of 
purity  and  intelligence. 

Kenan's  tes-  Ernest  Renan,  the  well-known  author, 
scholar,  scientist,  and  Member  of  the 
French  Academy,  was  himself  a  rationalist, 
yet  he  calls  St.  Cyran,  the  Jansenist  leader 
of  the  Port  Royal  school  of  thought,  ''  the 
Calvin  who  took  in  hand  the  cause  of  God, 
to  restore  the  faith  of  St.  Paul  and  Augus- 
tine ".  "  This  school  ",  he  says,  "  was  un- 
equalled in  the  greatness  of  the  characters 
it  formed.  Nowhere  else  have  been  seen 
so  many  brave  and  loyal  spirits  devoted  ab- 
88 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY    ITS  FRUITS 

solutely  to  their  ideal  of  righteousness. 
Port  Royal  rises  in  the  midst  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  like  a  triumphal  column,  a 
temple  to  manliness  and  truth."  '^^ 

IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

The  sterling  character  and  worth  of  the  ta^  ^r^„ 
Calvinists  who  settled  New  England  has  ^^gi^'^^'^ 
become  a  proverb.     Puritans  they  were  in 
fact  as  well  as  name.     They  reared  their 
children  to  fear  God,  obey  their  parents,  . 
speak  the  truth,  and  practice  industry  and 
temperance.      "  One    might    dwell    there 
from  year  to  year  ",  said  a  contemporary 
writer,  "  and  not  see  a  drunkard,  or  hear  ar 
oath,    or   meet   a  beggar ".      The   conse- 
quence was  universal  health.    The  average 
duration  of  life  in  New  England  as  com- 
pared with  Europe  v/as  doubled.     Of  all 
who  were  born  into  the  world  more  than 
two  in  ten,  full  four  in  nineteen,  attained 
the  age  of  seventy.    Of  those  who  lived  be- 
yond ninety  the  proportion  as  compared 

"  ••  Studies  in  Religious  History  and  Criticism •*„ 
pp.  424,  425. 

89 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

with  European  tables  of  longevity  was  still 
more  remarkable.'^^ 

Their  religion  was  their  life.    It  governed 
all  their  thoughts  and  relations.     Beasts  as 
well  as  men  felt  its  influence.     Cruelty  to 
animals  was  a  civil  offense.    In  the  human- 
ity of  their  criminal  laws  they  were  two  cen- 
turies ahead  of  their  times. '^^     In  all  their 
records  Bancroft  could  find  no  example  of 
divorce,    an    evidence    of   that    Calvinistic 
conscience  which,   as  Taine  has  told  us, 
''enthroned  purity  on  the  domestic  hearth". 
The   mistakes   and   failings   which   they 
shared  in  common  with  their  age  are  as 
nothing  in  comparison  with  their  virtues. 
"  Their   transient    persecutions    in    Amer- 
ica ",  says  Bancroft,  "  were  in  self-defense, 
and  were  no  more  than  a  train  of  mists 
hovering  of  an  autumn  morning  over  the 
channel  of  a  fine  river  that  diffused  fresh- 
ness and  fertility  wherever  it  wound."  ^* 
The  Puritans  of  New  England  are  a  char- 

"  "  Hist.  u.  S.",  vol.  I.  p.  467. 

73 Id.,  p.  465. 

'*  Id.,  p.  464. 

90 


THE   CREED  TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

acteristic  example  of  the  Calvinistic  spirit  Calvinism 
of  intelligence  and  free  inquiry.     ''  Of  all  ""'"^ ^''''  '"^ 

°  qutry. 

contemporary  sects  ",  says  Bancroft,  "  they 
were  the  most  free  from  credulity."  "^^  The 
Pilgrim  Fathers  he  pronounces  "  Calvinists 
in  their  faith  according  to  the  straitest  sys- 
tem ",  and  says  of  them,  "  they  renounced 
all  attachment  to  human  authority  and  re- 
served an  entire  and  perpetual  liberty  of 
forming  their  principles  and  practice  from 
the  light  that  inquiry  might  shed  upon 
their  minds." "^^  In  this  they  but  obeyed  the 
impulse  of  their  creed  and  the  example  of 
their  spiritual  father,  Calvin,  whom  the 
same  author  describes  as  ''  pushing  free  in- 
quiry to  its  utmost  verge,  and  yet  valuing 
inquiry  solely  as  the  means  of  arriving  at 
fixed  conclusions."  '^"^  It  was  in  Calvinistic 
Holland,  according  to  Smiles,  that  freedom 
of  inquiry  found  its  chief  European  cen- 
trejs 

'5  "Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  I.  p.  463. 
''^  Id.,  p.  300. 

'^  "  Miscellanies  ",  p.  407. 
'^''The  Huguenots",  p.  177. 

91 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

In  his  famous  and  profound  work  on  the 
''  History  of  CiviUzation  ",  Buckle,  himself 
the  adherent  of  no  religious  creed,  remarks 
upon  "  the  inquisitive  spirit  which  has  al- 
ways accompanied  Calvinism."  '^^  "  The 
professors  of  Calvinism ",  he  says,  "  ar" 
more  likely  to  acquire  habits  of  independ- 
ent thinking  than  those  of  Arminianism."  ^^ 
This  would  seem  a  safe  inference  from  an 
admitted  historical  fact  which  Buckle  thus 
states:  ''  The  most  profound  thinkers  have 
been  on  the  Calvinistic  side;  and  it  is  inter- 
esting to  observe  that  this  superiority  of 
thought  on  the  part  of  the  Calvinists  ex- 
isted from  the  beginning."  ^^  We  quote  in 
this  connection  the  acknowledgment  of  an 
able  and  distinguished  leader  of  American 
Methodism.  Says  Dr.  Curry:  "We  con- 
cede to  the  Calvinistic  churches  the  honor 
of  'having  all  along  directed  the  best  think- 
ing of  the  country." 

"Vol.  I.  p.  614. 

wid..  p.  613. 
^Md.,  p.  613,  note. 

92 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY    ITS   FRUITS 

This  historic  and  habitual  superiority  j^fa^  ^x- 
of  Calvinists  in  the  realm  of  intellect  is  noP^^^*^'^' 
accident.  It  is  the  fruit  of  their  creed. 
Even  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  admits  and 
admires  the  "  mental  concentration  and 
force  "  inspired  by  Calvinism,  and  lauds  the 
effect  upon  "  character  and  intellect  "  of  its 
"  determination  of  thought  on  the  eternal 
world  ".  Calvinism  possesses  the  mind  with 
themes  the  most  vital  and  majestic,  "  which 
soar  into  the  immeasurable  blue  and  open 
to  thought  celestial  gates  ".  It  gives  foun- 
dation, consecration,  inspiration  to  human 
thought  by  its  sublime  doctrine  of  the 
unity,  stability,  and  order  of  all  things  in 
God.  The  history  of  things  heavenly  and 
earthly,  spiritual  and  material,  past,  pres- 
ent, and  to  come,  is  a  great  whole  in  which 
the  Divine  Will  fulfils  itself  in  its  wisdom, 
power,  and  goodness,  all  things  coming 
from  God  and  returning  to  Him  in  the  maj- 
esty of  an  imperial  plan,  formed  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  whose  unfolding 
is  Universal  Providence,  and  whose  goal 
93 


THE    CREED  TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 
and  consummation  is  that 

"  One  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

Most  satisfy-  j^  this  great  and  ennobling-  conception 
stimulating  which  takcs  us  behind  all  that  is  phenom- 
enal and  bids  us  look  at  the  eternities  be- 
fore and  after  our  little  day,  every  problem 
in  theology,  science,  and  philosophy  finds 
its  appropriate  place,  and  to  man's  think- 
ing faculty  presents  its  inspiring  challenge. 
Intellectually,  Calvinism  is  at  once  the 
most  satisfying  and  the  most  stimulating  of 
creeds.  It  grapples  with  every  difficulty. 
"  It  goes  to  the  very  root  ",  says  Morley, 
*'  of  man's  relations  with  the  scheme  of 
universal  things."  ^"  •Matthew  Arnold, 
England's  most  acute  and  cultured  critic 
of  life  and  literature,  has  truly  said 
that  while  "  Arminianism,  in  the  practical 
man's  fashion,  is  apt  to  scrape  the  surface 
of  things  only  ",  the  Calvinist's  ''  serious- 
ness, force,  and  fervency  "  are  begotten  of 

^  "  Oliver  Cromwell  ",  December  Century,  1899. 
94 


THE    CREED  TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

**  Calvinism's  perpetual  conversance  with 
deep  things  and  with  the  Bible."  ^^  The  be- 
Hever  in  the  Calvinistic  system  is  no  child 
playing  with  sandheaps  on  the  seashore. 
He  walks  among  hills  and  mountains.  The 
themes  of  thought  around  him  tower  up- 
ward, Alps  on  Alps.  His  mental  stature 
rises  with  his  surroundings.  He  becomes 
a  thoughtful  being,  communing  with  sub- 
limities. 

To  its  characteristic  elevation  of  thought  '•/#//> 
and  life,  writers  of  all  shades  of  theological 
opinion  bear  unconscious  witness  in  their 
use  of  the  word  ''  lofty  "  or  its  equivalent 
in  connection  with  Calvinism.  Numberless 
illastrations  might  be  given.  One  of  the 
latest  is  Theodore  Roosevelt,  in  whose  re- 
cent "  Life  of  Cromwell  "  even  the  cursory 
reader  must  have  noticed  the  recurrence  of 
such  expressions  as  ''  lofty  creed  ",  "  lofty 
Presbyterianism",  "lofty  souls",  "loftiness 
of  aim  ",  and  the  like,  descriptive  of  the 
Calvinistic  faith  and  spirit. 

•"'St.  Paul  and  Protestantism",  pp.  2i,  26. 

95 


THE  CREED  TESTED  BY  TFS  FRUITS. 

The  elevation  of  the  entire  man  sought 
and  wrought  by  Calvinism  is  both  cause 
and  effect  of  the  stress  it  has  ever  laid  upon 
intelligence  and  education.  Holding  that 
man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God,  it  seeks 
the  development  and  training  of  the  whole 
manhood,  intellectual  as  well  as  spiritual, 
as  faculty  for  the  attainment  of  this  di- 
vinely appointed  end.  It  is  natural,  there- 
fore, that  Calvinism's  greatest  expounder 
should  have  been  also  the  greatest  educa- 
tional benefactor  of  the  modern  world. 
*'  We  boast  ",  says  Bancroft,  ''  of  our  com- 
mon schools;  Calvin  was  the  father  of  pop- 
ular education,  the  inventor  of  the  system 
of  free  schools."  ^^  *'  Wherever  Calvinism 
gained  dominion  ",  he  says  again,  "  it  in- 
voked intelligence  for  the  people  and  in 
every  parish  planted  the  common  school."®** 

"  It  dreads  no  skeptic's  puny  hands, 
While  near  the  school  the  church-spire  stands; 

Nor  fears  the  blinded  bigot's  rule 
While  near  the  church-spire  stands  the  school." 

^  **  Miscellanies  ",  p,  406. 
W"Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  II.  p.  463. 

96 


THE    CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

To  the  heroic  survivors  of  the  memora-  The  heart  of 
ble  siege  of  Leyden,  William  the  Silent  of-  Calvinism, 
fered  as  a  reward  of  their  patriotism  a  re- 
duction of  taxes  or  the  establishment  of  a 
school  of  learning.  They  chose  the  latter. 
That  was  the  origin  of  the  University  of 
Leyden,  renowned  throughout  the  whole 
world,  whose  three-hundredth  anniversary 
twenty-five  years  ago  was  celebrated  with 
befitting  solemnities.  It  stands  a  monu- 
ment of  that  Calvinistic  love  of  learning 
which,  putting  mind  above  money,  has  in- 
spired countless  generations  of  God-fearing 
Calvinists  to  pinch  themselves  to  the  bone 
to  educate  their  children.  "  That  any  be- 
ing with  capacity  for  knowledge  should  die 
ignorant,  this  I  call  a  tragedy."  In  this 
thrilling  dictum  of  Carlyle,  giving  the  word 
knowledge  its  highest  reach  and  noblest 
purpose,  throbs  the  heart  of  Calvinism. 

IN   SCOTLAND. 

The  best  possible  place  to  study  the  ef- 
fects of  a  particular  system  of  religion  is  a 
97 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 


The  best 
studying 
ground. 


The  Scotch 
before  Cal- 
vinism. 


'  The  last 
shall  be 
first:' 


country  in  which  for  generations  that  sys- 
tem has  had  full  sway  and  a  free  hand.  To 
know  the  practical  fruits  of  Roman  Cathol- 
icism we  should  examine  some  country  like 
Spain  or  Brazil,  where  for  centuries  Ro- 
manism has  been  the  one  religion,  unhelped 
and  unhindered  by  other  systems.  There 
is  one  land  in  which  Calvinism  has  long 
been  practically  the  one  religion.  That 
land  is  Scotland. 

When  Calvinism  reached  the  Scotch  peo- 
ple, they  were  vassals  of  the  Romish 
church,  priest-ridden,  ignorant,  wretched, 
degraded  in  body,  mind,  and  morals. 
Buckle  describes  them  as  "  filthy  in  their 
persons  and  in  their  homes  ",  "  poor  and 
miserable  ",  "  excessively  ignorant  and  ex- 
cessively superstitious  ", ''  with  superstition 
engrained  into  their  characters."  ^® 

Marvellous  was  the  transformation  when 
the  great  doctrines  learned  by  Knox 
from  the  Bible  in  Scotland  and  more  thor- 
oughly at  Geneva  while  sitting  at  the  feet 

^  "  Hist,  of  Civilization  ",  vol.  ii.  pp.  140, 145.  I53. 

98 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

of  Calvin,  flashed  in  upon  their  minds.  It 
was  like  the  sun  rising  at  midnight.  Says 
Carlyle:  "  This  that  Knox  did  for  his  na- 
tion we  may  really  call  a  resurrection  as 
from  death."  ''  John  Knox  ",  says  Froude, 
"  was  the  one  man  without  whom  Scotland 
as  the  modern  world  has  known  it,  would 
have  had  no  existence."  ^"^  Knox  made 
Calvinism  the  religion  of  Scotland,  and  Cal- 
vinism made  Scotland  the  moral  standard 
for  the  world.  It  is  certainly  a  significant 
fact  that  in  that  country  where  there  is  the 
most  of  Calvinism  there  should  be  the  least 
of  crime;  that  of  all  the  peoples  of  the  world 
to-day  that  nation  which  is  confessedly  the 
most  moral  is  also  the  most  thoroughly 
Calvinistic;  that  in  that  land  where  Calvin- 
ism has  had  supremest  sway  individual  and 
national  morality  has  reached  its  loftiest 
level. 

Henry  M.  Stanley,  the  famous  explorer,  Stanleys 
is  one  of  the  shrewdest  judges  of  men  that  ^^^^^f^^ony. 
this  generation  has  produced.    His  insight 

8'  "  Hist.  Eng.",  vol.  x.  p.  454. 

99 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

into  character  and  acuteness  of  observation 
were  the  means  again  and  again  of  saving 
his  own  life  and  that  of  his  men  amid  the 
wilds  of  heathenism.  His  travels  have 
brought  him  into  close  personal  contact 
with  missionaries  of  every  church  and  na- 
tionality. TJiough  no  Scotchman  himself, 
Stanley  pronounces  Scotch  missionaries 
the  best  and  most  successful  in  the  world; 
and  their  superiority  he  attributes  to  that 
supreme  devotion  to  duty  taught  them  in 
their  Calvinistic  homes. ^^ 
'^Syiritrtai  Stanley's  testimony  to  the  pre-eminent 
conqiuro's  of   ^^^^    and    success    of    the    missionaries 

the  •asorld.         ^ 

trained  by  Calvinism  reminds  us  of  a 
similar  tribute  by  the  great  historian 
D'Aubigne.  ''  Luther  ",  he  says,  "  trans- 
formed princes  into  heroes  of  the  faith;  the 
reformation  of  Calvin  was  addressed  par- 
ticularly to  the  people,  among  whom  it 
raised  up  martyrs  until  the  time  came  when 

®^  For  an  exquisite  and  inspiring  picture,  drawn 
from  life,  of  a  Scotch  Calvinistic  home,  see  appen- 
dix to  this  chapter. 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS    FRUITS 

it  was  to  send  forth  the  spiritual  conquerors 
of  the  world.  For  three  centuries  it  has 
been  producing  in  the  social  condition  of 
the  nations  that  have  received  it,  transfor- 
mations unknown  to  former  times.  And 
still  at  this  very  day,  and  now  perhaps  more 
than  ever,  it  imparts  to  the  men  who  accept 
it  a  spirit  of  power  which  makes  them 
chosen  instruments  fitted  to  propagate 
truth,  morality,  and  civilization  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth."  ^^ 

Another  significant  fact.  Scotland  leads  intellectual 
the  world  not  only  in  the  average  morality,  Z''^"' 
but  also  in  the  average  intelligence  of  its 
people.  This  was  to  have  been  expected. 
Calvinism,  as  we  have  seen,  elevates  the 
w^hole  man.  The  study  of  its  comprehen- 
sive and  logical  system  of  doctrine  is  itself 
an  unsurpassed  mental  discipline  and  stim- 
ulus. "  The  efifect  of  familiarity  with  the 
Shorter  Catechism  upon  the  intellectual 
character  of  the  Scottish  peasantry  ",  says 

•'"Reformation  in    the  Time  of  Calvin  ",  vol.  I., 
preface,  p.  x. 

lOI 


-eminence* 


THE   CREED   TESTED    BY   ITS   FRUITS 

Morley,  "  is  one  of  the  accepted  common- 
places of  history."  ^^  "  In  every  branch  of 
knowledge  ",  says  Buckle,  "  this  once  poor 
and  ignorant  people  produced  original  and 
successful  thinkers.  What  makes  this  the 
more  remarkable  is  its  complete  contrast 
to  their  former  state."  ^^  Says  Prof.  Fiske: 
"  One  need  not  fear  contradiction  in  say- 
ing that  no  other  people  in  modern  times, 
in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  have 
achieved  so  much  in  all  departments  of  hu- 
man activity  as  the  people  of  Scotland  have 
achieved.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  men- 
tion the  pre-eminence  of  Scotland  in  the 
industrial  arts,  or  to  recount  the  glorious 
names  in  philosophy,  in  history,  in  poetry 
and  romance,  and  in  every  department  of 
science  which  have  made  Scotland  illustri- 
ous for  all  future  time."^^  Prof.  Fiske  pro- 
ceeds to  remark  upon  the  patent  fact  that 


•"  "  Oliver  Cromwell  ",  Century  Magazine^  February, 
1900. 
*^  "  Hist,  of  Civilization  ",  vol.  11.  p.  253. 
•^  "  Beginnings  of  New  England  ",  p.  152. 
102 


IHE   CREED   TESTED   BY    ITS   FRUITS 

''  this  magnificent  intellectual  fruition  "  is 
the  outcome  of  ''  Calvinistic  orthodoxy." 

Here  then  is  a  matter  of  profound  sig-  Summation. 
nificance,  that  that  land  whose  previous 
degradation  was  notorious,  and  which  for 
three  centuries  has  been  of  all  lands  the 
most  intensely  and  exclusively  Calvinistic, 
to-day  surpasses  every  other  nation  on  the 
globe  in  both  the  intellectual  and  the  moral 
glory  of  its  people. 

America  has  never  produced  a  man  of  Lowell's 
wider  information,  or  more  varied  and  brill-  '^  ^^°^y* 
iant  gifts,  than  James  Russell  Lowell,  the 
renowned    diplomat,    essayist,    and    poet. 
Lowell's  connection  from   childhood   was 
with  a  religious  body  not  Calvinistic;  yet 
he  says:     ''  If  the  Calvinistic  churches  are 
to  be  judged  by  the  results  of  their  teaching 
upon   character  and   conduct,   as   seen   in 
Scotland   and   New   England,   then   these' 
churches  are  entitled  to  the  highest  praise. 
For  the  superiority  is  not  solely  in  morality 
and  intelligence,  but  in  the  prevalent  sense 
of  duty,  in  high  ideals  and  inflexible  prin- 
103 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ciples,  and,  in  short,  in  the  consciousness  of 
the  spiritual  world  that  is  an  eternal  now 
with  believers.  After  due  allowance  made 
for  time-servers  and  hypocrites,  I  think 
there  are  among  the  Calvinists  more  godly 
men,  each  living  '  As  ever  in  his  great  Task- 
master's eye  ',  than  in  any  other  branch  of 
the  Christian  Church."  ^^ 
Review  and  We  havc  uot  spacc  to  pursuc  this  branch 
of  our  subject  further,  though  we  have  but 
dipped  into  it  here  and  there.  We  have 
endeavored  to  try  Calvinism  by  Christ's 
own  test  of  fruitfulness,  of  practical  results. 
We  have  examined  its  workings  in  many 
countries  and  amid  conditions  the  most  di- 
verse and  adverse.  We  have  conducted 
the  investigation  under  the  guidance,  not 
of  Calvinistic  partisans,  but  of  authors  and 
observers  of  worldwide  reputation  for 
ability  and  learning,  whose  preposses- 
sions in  almost  every  case  would  nat- 
urally be  rather  against  than  for  Calvin- 

*'  Quoted  by  the  Reformed  Church  Messenger,    1896, 
from  a  published  sketch  of  Lowell. 
104 


THE   CREED   TESTED    BY    ITS    FRUITS 

ism.  The  conclusion  to  which  they  lead  us 
represents  the  impartial  verdict  of  history. 
That  conclusion  is,  that  as  a  character 
builder,  as  a  purifying,  energizing,  uplifting 
force  in  the  life  of  men  and  nations,  Calvin- 
ism stands  supreme  among  the  religious 
systems  of  the  world.  And  further,  since 
truth  is  in  order  to  godliness,  and  the  tree 
is  to  be  judged  by  its  fruit,  we  have  here  the 
historical  demonstration  that  the  Calvinis- 
tic  is  the  truest  creed  of  Christendom. 

This  tree,  to  adapt  another's  eloquent  TAe  o/d  oak 
paragraph,^'*  may  have,  to  prejudiced  eyes, 
a  rough  bark,  a  gnarled  stem,  and  boughs 
twisted  often  into  knotted  shapes  of  un- 
graceful strength.  But,  remember,  it  is 
not  a  willow-wand  of  yesterday.  These 
boughs  have  wrestled  with  the  storms  of 
a  thousand  years;  this  stem  has  been 
wreathed  with  the  red  lightning  and 
scarred  by  the  thunderbolt;  and  all  over  its 
rough  rind  are  the  marks  of  the  battle-axe 

'*  Dr.  T.  V.  Moore's  "  Power  and  Claims  of  a  Cal- 
vinistic  Literature",  p.  35. 

105 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

and  the  bullet.  This  old  oak  has  not  the 
pliant  grace  and  silky  softness  of  a  green- 
house plant,  but  it  has  a  majesty  above 
grace,  and  a  grandeur  beyond  beauty.  Its 
roots  may  be  strangely  contorted,  but  some 
of  them  are  rich  with  the  blood  of  glorious 
battle-fields,  some  of  them  are  clasped 
around  the  stakes  of  martyrs;  some  of  them 
hidden  in  solitary  cells  and  lonely  libraries, 
where  deep  thinkers  have  mused  and 
prayed,  as  in  some  apocalyptic  Patmos; 
and  its  great  tap-root  runs  back,  until  it 
twines  in  living  and  loving  embrace  around 
the  cross  of  Calvary.  Its  boughs  may  be 
gnarled,  but  they  hang  clad  with  all  that  is 
richest  and  strongest  in  the  civilization  and 
Christianity  of  human  history. 

APPENDIX. 

A  Scotch  Presbyterian  Home, 

We  have  never  heard  or  read  a  sermon 
on  family  religion  which  impressed  us  more 
deeply   than   the   following   simple   narra- 
tive of  the  reHgious  home-life  of  an  humble 
1 06 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

Scotch  family.  It  is  taken  from  the  first 
chapter  of  the  Autobiography  of  John  G. 
Paton,  missionary  to  the  New  Hebrides: 

''  And  so  began  in  his  early  life  that 
blessed  custom  of  Family  Prayer,  morning 
and  evening,  which  my  father  practised 
probably  without  one  single  omission  till 
he  lay  on  his  deathbed,  seventy-seven  years 
of  age;  when,  even  to  the  last  day  of  his  life, 
a  portion  of  Scripture  was  read,  and  his 
voice  was  heard  softly  joining  in  the  Psalm, 
and  his  lips  breathed  the  morning  and  even- 
ing Prayer,  falling  in  sweet  benediction 
on  the  heads  of  all  his  children,  far  away 
many  of  them  over  all  the  earth,  but  all 
meeting  him  there  at  the  Throne  of  Grace. 
None  of  us  can  remember  that  any  day 
ever  passed  unhallowed  thus;  no  hurry  for 
market,  no  rush  to  business,  no  arrival  of 
friends  or  guests,  no  trouble  or  sorrow,  no 
joy  or  excitement,  ever  prevented  at  least 
our  kneeling  around  the  family  altar,  while 
the  high  priest  led  our  prayers  to  God, 
and  offered  himself  and  his  children  there. 
107 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

"  And  blessed  to  others,  as  well  as  to 
ourselves,  was  the  light  of  such  example! 
I  have  heard  that,  in  long  after  years,  the 
worst  woman  in  the  village  of  Torthorwald, 
then  leading  an  immoral  life,  but  since 
changed  by  the  grace  of  God.  was  known 
to  declare,  that  the  only  thing  that  kept  her 
from  despair  and  from  the  hell  of  the  sui- 
cide was  when  in  the  dark  winter  nights 
s'he  crept  close  up  underneath  my  father's 
window,  and  heard  him  pleading  in  family 
worship  that  God  would  convert  '  the  sin- 
ner  from  the  error  of  wicked  ways  and 
poHsh  him  as  a  jewel  for  the  Redeemer's 
crown.'  '  I  felt ',  said  she, '  that  I  was  a  bur- 
den on  that  good  man's  heart,  and  I  knew 
that  God  would  not  disappoint  him.  That 
thought  kept  me  out  of  hell,  and  at  last  led 
me  to  the  only  Saviour.' 

"  Each  of  us,  from  very  early  days,  con- 
sidered it  no  penalty,  but  a  great  joy,  to  go 
with  our  father  to  the  church;  the  four 
miles  were  a  treat  to  our  young  spirits,  the 
company  by  the  way  was  a  fresh  incite- 
io8 


THE   CREED   TESTED    BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ment,  and  occasionally  some  of  the  won- 
ders of  city  life  rewarded  our  eager  eyes. 
A  few  other  pious  men  and  women  of  the 
best  evangelical  type  went  from  the  same 
parish  to  one  or  other  favourite  minister 
at  Dumfries, — and  when  these  God-fearing 
peasants  '  forgathered  '  in  the  way  to  or 
from  the  house  of  God,  we  youngsters  had 
sometimes  rare  glimpses  of  what  Christian 
talk  may  be  and  ought  to  be.  They  went 
to  the  church,  full  of  beautiful  expectancy 
of  spirit — their  souls  were  on  the  outlook 
for  God;  they  returned  from  the  church, 
ready  and  even  anxious  to  exchange  ideas  as 
to  what  they  had  heard  and  received  of  the 
things  of  life.  I  have  to  bear  my  testimony 
that  religion  was  presented  to  us  with  a 
great  dealof  intellectual  freshness,  and  that 
it  did  not  repel  us  but  kindled  our  spiritual 
interest.  The  talks  which  we  heard  were, 
however,  genuine;  not  the  make-believe  of 
religious  conversation,  but  the  sincere  out- 
come of  their  own  personalities.  That, 
perhaps,  makes  all  the  difference  betwixt 
109 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

talk   that   attracts    and    talk    that    drives 
away. 

"  We  had,  too,  special  Bible  Readings  on 
the  Lord's  Day  evening, — mother  and  chil- 
dren and  visitors  reading  in  turns,  with 
fresh  and  interesting  question,  answer  and 
exposition,  all  tending  to  impress  us  with 
the  infinite  grace  of  a  God  of  love  and 
mercy  in  the  great  gift  of  His  dear  Son 
Jesus,  our  Saviour.  The  Shorter  Cate- 
chism was  gone  through  regularly,  each 
answering  the  question  asked,  till  the  whole 
had  been  explained,  and  its  foundation  in 
Scripture  shown  by  the  proof-texts  ad- 
duced. It  has  been  an  amazing  thing  to 
me,  occasionally  to  meet  with  men  who 
blamed  this  '  catechizing '  for  giving  them 
a  distaste  to  religion;  every  one  in  all  our 
circle  thinks  and  feels  exactly  the  opposite. 
It  laid  the  solid  rock-foundation  of  our  re- 
ligious life.  After-years  have  given  to  these 
questions  and  their  answers  a  deeper  or  a 
modified  meaning,  but  none  of  us  have  ever 
once  even  dreamed  of  wishing  that  we  had 
no 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

been  otherwise  trained.  Of  course,  if  the 
parents  are  not  devout,  sincere,  and  afifcc- 
tionate, — if  the  whole  affair  on  both  sides  is 
taskwork,  or  worse,  hypocritical  and  false, 
— results  must  be  very  different  indeed! 
"Oh,  I  can  remember  those  happy  Sabbath 
evenings;  no  blinds  drawn,  and  shutters  up, 
to  keep  out  the  sun  from  us,  as  some  scan- 
dalously affirm;  but  a  holy,  happy,  entirely 
human  day,  for  a  Christian  father,  mother, 
and  children  to  spend.  How  my  father 
would  parade  across  and  across  our  flag- 
floor,  telling  over  the  substance  of  the  day's 
sermons  to  our  dear  mother,  who,  because 
of  the  great  distance  and  because  of  her 
many  living  'encumbrances  ',  got  very  sel- 
dom indeed  to  the  church,  but  gladly  em- 
braced every  chance,  when  there  was  pros- 
pect or  promise  of  a  '  lift '  either  way 
from  some  friendly  gig!  How  he  would  en- 
tice us  to  help  him  to  recall  some  idea  or 
other,  rewarding  us  when  we  got  the  length 
of  'taking  notes'  and  reading  them  over  on 
our  return;  how  he  would  turn  the  talk  ev«r 
III 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

so  naturally  to  some  Bible  story,  or  some 
martyr  reminiscence,  or  some  happy  allu- 
sion to  the  '  Pilgrim's  Progress'!  And  then 
it  was  quite  a  contest,  which  of  us  would 
get  reading  aloud,  while  all  the  rest  Hst- 
ened,  and  father  added  here  and  there  a 
happy  thought,  or  illustration,  or  anecdote. 
"Others  must  write  and  say  what  they  will, 
and  as  they  feel;  but  so  must  I.  There  were 
eleven  of  us  brought  up  in  a  home  like  that; 
and  never  one  of  the  eleven,  boy  or  girl, 
man  or  woman,  has  been  heard,  or  ever  will 
be  heard,  saying  that  Sabbath  was  dull  or 
wearisome  for  us,  or  suggesting  that  we 
have  heard  of  or  seen  any  way  more  likely 
than  that  for  making  the  day  of  the  Lord 
bright  and  blessed  alike  for  parents  and  for 
children.  But  God  help  the  homes  where 
these  things  are  done  by  force  and  not  by 
love!  The  very  discipline  through  which 
our  father  passed  us  was  a  kind  of  religion 
in  itself.  If  anything  really  serious  required 
to  be  punished,  he  retired  firs*  to  his  closet 
for  prayer,  and  we  boys  got  to  understand 

112 


TiiiE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

that  he  was  laying  the  whole  matter  before 
God;  and  that  was  the  severest  part  of  the 
punishment  for  me  to  bear.  I  could  have 
defied  any  amount  of  mere  penalty,  but  this 
spoke  to  my  conscience  as  a  message  from 
God.  We  loved  him  all  the  more,  when  we 
saw  how  much  it  cost  him  to  punish  us; 
and,  in  truth,  he  had  never  very  much  of 
that  kind  of  work  to  do  upon  any  one  of  all 
the  eleven — we  were  ruled  by  love  far  more 
than  by  fear. 

"  Our  home  consisted  of  a  *  but '  and  a 
*ben'  and  a  'mid-room',  or  chamber,  called 
the  '  closet '.  The  one  end  was  my  moth- 
er's domain,  and  served  all  the  purposes  of 
dining-room  and  kitchen  and  parlor,  be- 
sides containing  two  large  wooden  erec- 
tions, called  by  our  Scotch  peasantry 
*  box-beds';  not  holes  in  the  wall,  as  in 
cities,  but  grand,  big,  airy  beds,  adorned 
with  many-coloured  counterpanes,  and 
hung  with  natty  curtains,  showing  the  skill 
of  the  mistress  of  the  house.  The  other 
end  was  my  father's  workshop,  filled  with 
"J 


THE   CREED    TESTED   BY   ITS    FRUITS 

five  or  six  '  stocking  frames  ',  whirring  with 
the  constant  action  of  five  or  six  pairs  of 
busy  hands  and  feet,  and  producing  right 
genuine  hosiery  for  the  merchants  at 
Hawick  and  Dumfries.  The  '  closet '  was  a 
very  small  apartment  betwixt  the  other 
two,  having  room  only  for  a  bed,  a  little 
table,  and  a  chair,  with  a  diminutive  win- 
dow shedding  diminutive  light  on  the  scene. 
This  was  the  Sanctuary  of  that  cottage 
home.  Thither  daily,  and  oftentimes  a  day, 
generally  after  each  meal,  we  saw  our  fa- 
ther retire,  and  '  shut  to  the  door  ' ;  and  we 
children  got  to  understand  by  a  sort  of 
spiritual  instinct  (for  the  thing  was  too  sa- 
cred to  be  talked  about)  that  prayers  were 
being  poured  out  there  for  us,  as  of  old  by 
the  High  Priest  within  the  veil  in  the  Most 
Holy  Place.  We  occasionally  heard  the  pa- 
thetic echoes  of  a  trembling  voice  pleading 
as  if  for  life,  and  we  learned  to  slip  out  and 
in  past  that  door  on  tiptoe,  not  to  disturb 
the  holy  colloquy.  The  outside  world 
might  not  know,  but  we  knew,  whence 
"4 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

came  that  happy  light  as  of  a  new-bom 
smile  that  always  was  dawning  on  my  fa- 
ther's face:  it  was  a  reflection  from  the  Di- 
vine Presence,  in  the  consciousness  of 
which  he  lived.  Never,  in  temple  or  cathe- 
dral, on  mountain  or  in  glen,  can  I  hope  to 
feel  that  the  Lord  God  is  more  near,  more 
visibly  walking  and  talking  with  men,  than 
under  that  humble  cottage  roof  of  thatch 
and  oaken  wattles.  Though  everything 
else  in  religion  were  by  some  unthinkable 
catastrophe  to  be  swept  out  of  memory,  or 
blotted  from  my  understanding,  my  soul 
would  wander  back  to  those  early  scenes, 
and  shut  itself  up  once  again  in  that  Sanct- 
uary closet,  and,  hearing  still  the  echoes  of 
those  cries  to  God,  would  hurl  back  all 
doubt  with  the  victorious  appeal,  *  He 
walked  with  God,  why  may  not  I?  ' 

"  His  happy  partner,  *  Wee  Jen  ',  died  in 
1865,  and  he  himself  in  1868,  having 
reached  his  seventy-seventh  year, — an  alto- 
gether beautiful  and  noble  episode  of  hu- 
man existence  having  been  enacted,  amid 
115 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS    FRUITS 

the  humblest  surroundings  of  a  Scottish 
peasant's  home,  through  the  influence  of 
their  united  love  by  the  grace  of  God;  and 
in  this  world,  or  in  any  world,  all  their  chil- 
dren will  rise  up  at  mention  of  their  names 
and  call  them  blessed." 
ii6 


I 


HI 


THE    CREED    TESTED    BY     ITS 
FRUITS 

(CONTINUED) 


"  IV  shall  kno'w  th<-   truth,  atut  the   truth    sha/l 
viakc-  you  free."     ]iy\\\\  8  :  32. 


Ill 

THE   CREED   TESTED    BY    ITS 
FRUITS  (Continued) 

America's  deht  to  Calvinism. 

If  the  average  American  citizen  were  jVir  foumfrr 
asked,  who  was  the  founder  of  America,  ^/^"^'''^"• 
the  true  author  of  our  giant  Republic,  he 
might  be  puzzled  to  answer.  We  can  im- 
agine his  amazement  at  hearing  the  answer 
given  to  this  question  by  the  famous  Cicr- 
man  historian,  Ranke,  one  of  the  pro- 
foundest  scholars  of  modern  times.  Says 
Ranke,  *\T<^hn  Calvin  was  the  virtual 
founder  of  America." 

If  this  be  true,  every  American  should 
know  it.    Let  us  see. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  esti- 
mated   population    of    our    country    was 
119 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

Early  mate-  3,ooo,cxx).    Of  this  number  900,000  were  of 
rial  of  our     Scotch  or  Scotch-Irish  origin,  600,000  were 

Republic,  ^      ' 

Puritan  English,  while  over  400,000  were 
of  Dutch,  German  Reformed,  and  Hugue- 
not descent.^  That  is  to  say,  two  thirds  of 
our  Revolutionary  forefathers  were  trained 
in  the  school  of  Calvin.  Since  these  two 
thirds  included  the  New  England  colonists 
an'd  the  Scotch-Irish  immigrants,  pro- 
nounced by  the  learned  author  of  ''  Amer- 
ican Christianity  "  ''  the  two  most  master- 
ful races  on  the  continent  ",^  "  the  two 
streams ",  as  Dr.  F.  W.  Gunsaulus  says, 
"  apparently  most  effective  and  important 
in  the  creation  of  great  things,  intellectual 
and  spiritual,  in  our  American  life  ",^  their 
preponderance  in  influence  was  even  more 
marked  than  in  numbers. 

*W.   H.  Roberts,  "Proceedings    Seventh  General 
Council,  1899",  p.  94. 

'"Hist,   of  American  Christianity",   by  Leonard 
Woolsey  Bacon  (1900),  p.  292. 

3  The  American  Monthly  Review  of  Reviews,  February, 
jgoi,  p.  167. 

199 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

Where  learned  they  those  immortal  prin-  Calvinism 
ciples  of  the  rights  of  man,  of  human  lib-  '^'^^  '^"''^^'^ 

^  *^  rights. 

erty,  equality,  and  self-government,  on 
which  they  based  our  Republic,  and  which 
form  to-day  the  distinctive  glory  of  our 
American  civilization?  In  the  school  of 
Calvin  they  learned  them.  There  the  mod- 
ern world  learned  them.  So  history 
teaches. 

Says  Bancroft:  "  Calvinism  was  revolu- ^  democratic 
tionary;  it  taught  as  a  Divine  revelation  the  ^^^^s^^^^- 
natural  equality  of  man."  ''  It  is  the  essen- 
tial tendency  of  Calvinism  ",  says  Doyle, 
the  eminent  Oxford  scholar,  ''  to  destroy 
all  distinctions  of  rank,  and  all  claims  to 
superiority  which  rest  on  wealth  or  politi- 
cal expediency."  *  ''  Calvinism  is  essen- 
tially democratic  ",^  says  Buckle  in  his  His- 
tory of  Civilization.  "  A  democratic  and 
republican  religion  ",^  it  is  called  by  De 
Tocqueville,    one    of    the    ablest    political 

*  "  The  English  in  America  ",  by  J.  A.  Doyle,  M.A., 
p.  9. 

'"Hist,  of  Civilization  ",  vol  i.  p.  669. 
^"  Democracy",  vol.  i.  p.  384. 

121 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

writers  of  the  century.  "  Calvinism  op- 
posed ",  says  Bancroft,  "  hereditary  mon- 
archy, aristocracy,  and  bondage."  ''  John 
Richard  Green,  the  author  of  the  greatest 
history  of  the  EngHsh  people  yet  written, 
belonged  to  the  Anglican  church.  Yet  he 
says:  "  It  is  in  Calvinism  that  the  modern 
world  strikes  its  roots;  for  it  was  Calvinism 
that  first  revealed  the  worth  and  dignity  of 
man.  Called  of  God,  and  heir  of  heaven, 
the  trader  at  his  counter  and  the  digger  in 
his  field  suddenly  rose  into  equality  with 
the  noble  and  the  king."^  "  In  that  mighty 
elevation  of  the  masses  ",  he  says  again, 
"  which  was  embodied  in  the  Calvinist 
doctrines  of  election  and  grace,  lay  the 
germs  of  the  modern  principles  of  human 
equality." 
Eject  of  Cai-  "  The  fruits  of  such  a  teaching  ",  con- 
,     ,.  tinues  Green,  ''  soon  showed  themselves  in 

teaching  ' 

illustrated.     3.  new  attitude  of  the  people.     '  Here  ',  said 
Melville,   over  the   grave  of  John  Knox, 

^"Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  II.  p.  464. 
®  '*  Hist,  of  Eng.  People  ",  vol.  ill.  p.  I14. 
122 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

'  here  lies  one  who  never  feared  the  face  of 
man';  and  if  Scotland  still  reverences  the 
memory  of  the  reformer,  it  is  because  at 
that  grave  her  peasant  and  her  trader 
learned  to  look  in  the  face  of  nobles  and 
kings  and  '  not  be  ashamed  '."  ^  To  the  ef- 
fect of  these  "  doctrines  of  election  and 
grace  "  taught  by  Knox,  Froude  also  testi- 
fies, saying:  ''  His  was  the  voice  which 
taught  the  peasant  of  the  Lothians  that  he 
was  a  free  man,  the  equal  in  the  sight  of 
God  with  the  proudest  peer  or  prelate  that 
had  trampled  on  his  forefathers.  He  it  was 
that  raised  the  poor  Commons  of  his  coun- 
try .  .  .  into  men  whom  neither  king,  no- 
ble, nor  priest  could  force  again  to  submit 
to  tyranny."  ^^ 

The    learned    author   of   ''The    United  *' Szic/i /a? fn 
States  as  a  Nation"  makes  the  following"  ^''"'''''"^•" 
eloquent  acknowledgment  of  the  relation 
of  the  Calvinistic  theology  to  liberty:     It 
"inspires  a  resolute,  almost  defiant,  freedom 

•"Hist   of  Eng.  People",  vol.  iii.  p.  446. 
"'•Hist.  Eng.",  vol.  x.  p.  457. 
123 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

in  those  who  deem  themselves  the  subjects 
of  God's  electing  grace:  in  all  things  they 
are  more  than  conquerors  throug'h  the  con- 
fidence that  nothing  shall  be  able  to  sepa- 
rate them  from  the  love  of  God.  No 
doctrine  of  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  of 
the  rights  of  man,  of  national  liberty,  of 
social  equality,  can  create  such  a  resolve 
for  the  freedom  of  the  soul  as  this  personal 
conviction  of  God's  favoring  and  protect- 
ing sovereignty.  He  who  has  this  faith 
feels  he  is  compassed  about  with  everlast- 
ing love,  guided  with  everlasting  strength; 
his  will  is  the  tempered  steel  that  no  fire 
can  melt,  no  force  can  break.  Such  faith  is 
freedom;  and  this  spiritual  freedom  is  the 
source  and  strength  of  all  other  free- 
dom." 11 

Prof.  Fiske  of  Harvard,  himself  not  ec- 
clesiastically allied  in  any  way  with  Calvin- 
ism, affirms  that  ''  The  promulgation  of 
Calvin's  theology  was  one  of  the  longest 
steps  that  mankind  have  taken  toward  per- 

^'  p.  30,  quoted  by  McFetridge. 
124 


THE   CREED   TESTED    BY   ITS   FRUITS 

sonal  freedom."  ''  It  was  a  religion  ",  he 
says,  ''  fit  to  inspire  men  who  were  to  be 
called  upon  to  fight  for  freedom."  ^^ 

''  Calvinism  ",  says  Froude,  ''  has  in- 
spired and  maintained  the  bravest  efforts 
ever  made  to  break  the  yoke  of  unjust 
authority."  ^^ 

Before  proving  its  power  in  the  new  Previous 
world,  Calvinism  had  fought  and  won  the '''■''"'^^^'"'^'^^^' 
fight  for  freedom  in  the  old.  Not  only  in 
Scotland,  as  we  have  seen,  but  also  in  Eng- 
land and  Holland  it  had  challenged  and 
conquered  tyranny.  To  the  Puritans,  de- 
clares Hume,  a  hater  cf  Calvinism,  England 
owes  "  the  whole  freedom  of  her  constitu- 
tion." ^^  Says  Motley,  not  ecclesiastically 
committed  himself  to  Calvinism:  "The 
battle  that  saved  England  to  constitu- 
tional liberty  was  fought  and  won  by  Cal- 
vinists."  Of  Holland  the  same  eminent 
historian    says:      "The    Reformation    had 

^"^  "The  Beginnings  of  New  England",  pp.  58,  59, 
*'  "Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects",  p.  13. 
**  "  Hist.  Eng.",  vol.  v.  p.  134. 

125 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

entered  the  Netherlands  by  the  Walloon 
(Calvinistic)  gate.  The  earliest  and  most 
eloquent  preachers,  the  most  impassioned 
converts,  the  sublimest  martyrs,  had  lived, 
preached,  fought,  suffered,  and  died  with 
the  precepts  of  Calvin  in  their  heart-- 
The  fire  which  had  consumed  the  last  ves- 
tige of  royal  and  sacerdotal  despotism 
throughout  the  independent  republic  had 
been  lighted  by  the  hands  of  Calvinists."  ^^ 
The  makers,  therefore,  of  free  Holland, 
free  England,  free  Scotland,  were  earlier 
pupils  in  the  same  school  that  moulded  the 
makers  of  free  America. 
Church  As  might  have  been  expected,  Calvin- 

ism's revolutionary  principles  of  liberty  and 
equality  found  expression  in  a  system  of 
church  government  equally  revolutionary. 
The  people  of  Christ,  it  taught,  were  to  be 
governed  and  ministered  to,  not  by  the  ap- 
pointees of  any  one  man  or  set  of  men 
placed  over  them,  but  by  pastors  and  offi- 
cers elected  by  themselves. 

^*  "The  United  Netherlands",  vol.  in.  p.  120. 
126 


government. 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY    ITS   FRUITS 

With  the.  principle  and  right  of  self-gov-  Revoiuti9n- 
ernment    embodied    in   this    plan,    we,    in  ^''->; '■^^"^^^■'' 

anism. 

America  at  least,  are  now  happily  familiar. 
Three  and  a  half  centuries  ago  it  was  so 
novel  and  revolutionary  as  to  shake  the 
whole  civil,  social,  and  religious  world  to  its 
centre. 

"  For  all  the  past  of  time  reveals 
A  bridal  dawn  of  thunder-peals, 
Wherever  Thought  hath  wedded  Fact." 

''  The  right  exercised  by  each  congrega- 
tion of  electing  its  own  ministers  was  in  it- 
self *',  says  Bancroft,  "  a  moral  revolution. 
Religion  was  now  with  the  people,  not  over 
the  people."  ^^  Sir  James  Stephen,  the 
eminent  English  statesman  and  jurist,  for 
ten  years  Professor  of  Modern  History  in 
the  University  of  Cambridge,  a  member 
himself  of  the  Anglican  Church,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  ecclesiastical  organization  ef- 
fected by  the  General  Synod  of  France, 

"••Hist.  U.  S.",  vol  I.  p.  462. 
127 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

which  met  May  25th,  1559,  says:  "  A  great 
social  revolution  had  thus  been  effected. 
Within  the  centre  of  the  French  monarchy, 
Calvin  and  his  disciples  had  established  a 
spiritual  republic,  and  had  solemnly  recog- 
nized as  the  basis  of  it  four  principles — 
each  germinant  of  results  of  the  highest  im- 
portance to  the  political  commonwealth. 
These  principles  were,  first,  that  the  will  of 
the  people  was  the  one  legitimate  source  of 
the  power  of  their  rulers;  secondly,  that 
power  was  most  properly  delegated  by  the 
people  to  their  rulers,  by  means  of  elec- 
tions, in  which  every  adult  man  might  exer- 
cise the  right  of  suffrage;  thirdly,  that  in 
ecclesiastical  government,  the  clergy  and 
laity  were  entitled  to  an  equal  and  co-ordi- 
nate authority;  and,  fourthly,  that  between 
the  Church  and  State,  no  alliance,  or  mu- 
tual dependence,  or  other  definite  relation, 
necessarily  or  properly  existed."  ^^  Cal- 
vin's church  organization  Green  calls  "  a 
Christian  republic  ",  "  a  Christian  state  in 

"  "Lectures  on  the  Hist,  of  France",  p.  415, 
128 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

which  the  true  sovereign  was  not  Pope  or 
Bishop  but  the  Christian  man."  ^^ 

By  its  coronation  of  the  individual  man  Birth  of 
as  sovereign,  Calvin's  organization  clashed  '^^  niodern 

wofld, 

not  only  with  the  rule  of  Pope  and  Bishop, 
but  with  all  those  despotic  and  aristocratic 
ideas  and  customs  which  had  dominated 
and  darkened  the  world  for  ages. 

"And  Freedom  reared  in  that  august  sunrise 
Her  beautiful  bold  brow." 

"  Presbytery  agreeth  as  well  with  mon- 
archy ",  declared  despotic  King  James,  "  as 
God  and  the  devil."  The  Calvinistic  sys- 
tem, ''  the  monarchs  of  that  day ",  says 
Bancroft,  *'  with  one  consent  and  with  in- 
stinctive judgment  feared  as  republican- 
ism." ^^  ''  As  a  vast  and  consecrated  de- 
mocracy ",  says  Green,  ''  it  stood  in  con- 
trast with  the  whole  social  and  political 
framework  of  the  European  nations."  ^^    It 

""Hist.  Eng.  People",  vol.  III.  p.  113. 

19  "Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  II.  p.  461. 

20  «•  Hist.  Eng.  People  ",  vol.  iii.  p.  114, 

129 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY    ITS   FRUITS 

marked  the  opening  of  a  new  chapter  in  the 
history  of  humanity. 
Benefactor         Had  Calvin  done  nothing  more  than  to 

of  mankind.  ,  ,      ,  ,        ,  , 

make  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  for  the  people,  a  startHng  and  tri- 
umphant reality  in  the  earth,  he  would  have 
deserved  well  of  mankind.  Says  Bancroft, 
"  More  truly  benevolent  to  the  human  race 
than  Solon,  more  self-denying  than  Ly- 
curgus,  the  genius  of  Calvin  infused  endur- 
ing elements  into  the  institutions  of  Geneva 
and  made  it  for  the  modern  world  the  im- 
pregnable fortress  of  popular  liberty,  the 
fertile  seedplot  of  democracy."  ^^ 
Calvin  s  The  city  of  Geneva,  in  Switzerland,  on 

the  shores  of  Lake  Geneva,  called  also 
Lake  Leman,  was  the  home  of  Calvin. 
Here  he  had  his  church,  which  Knox,  who 
came  to  Geneva,  like  ten  thousand  other 
Bible  students  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  to 
sit  an  admiring  pupil  at  Calvin's  feet,  pro- 
nourced  "  the  most  perfect  school  of  Christ 

»  •♦Miscellanies  ",  p.  406. 

130 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

that  ever  was  since  the  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles." 

From  Geneva  his  influence  radiated  into  influence. 
every  corner  of  Christendom.  ''  Calvin's 
true  home ",  as  Schaff  says,  "  was  the 
Church  of  God.  He  broke  through  all  na- 
tional limitations.  There  was  scarcely  a 
monarch  or  statesman  or  scholar  of  his  age 
with  whom  he  did  not  come  in  contact. 
Every  people  of  Europe  was  represented 
among  his  disciples.  He  helped  to  shape 
the  religious  character  of  churches  and  na- 
tions yet  unborn.  The  Huguenots  of 
France,  the  Protestants  of  Holland  and 
Belgium,  the  Puritans  and  Independents  of 
England  and  New  England,  the  Presbyte- 
rians of  Scotland  and  throughout  the 
world,  yea,  we  may  say,  the  whole  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  in  its  prevailing  religious  char- 
acter and  institutions,  bear  the  impress  of 
his  genius,  and  show  the  power  and  tenacity 
of  his  doctrines  and  principles  of  govern- 
ment." 22 

^'  "  Creeds  of  Christendom  ",  vol.  i.  p.  444. 
131 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

Calvinism  Thosc  revolutionary  principles  of  rcpub- 
vierica.  jj^^j^  liberty  and  self-government,  taught 
and  embodied  in  the  system  of  Calvin,  were 
brought  to  America,  and  in  this  new  land 
where  they  have  borne  so  mighty  a  harvest 
were  planted,  by  whose  hands? — the  hands 
of  Calvinists.  The  vital  relation  of  Calvin 
and  Calvinism  to  the  founding  and  free  in- 
stitutions of  America,  however  strange  in 
some  ears  the  statement  of  Ranke  may 
have  sounded,  is  recognized  and  affirmed 
by  historians  of  all  lands  and  creeds. 
D'Aubignrs  Says  D'Aubigne,  whose  "  History  of  the 
testimony.  Reformation  "  is  a  classic:  ''  Calvin  was  the 
founder  of  the  greatest  of  republics.  The 
pilgrims  who  left  their  country  in  the  reign 
of  James  I.,  and,  landing  on  the  barren  soil 
of  New  England,  founded  populous  and 
mighty  colonies,  were  his  sons,  his  direct 
and  legitimate  sons;  and  that  American  na- 
tion w'hich  we  have  seen  growing  so  rapidly 
boasts  as  its  father  the  humble  Reformer  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Leman."  ^^ 

**  '•  Reformation  in  the  Time  of  Calvin  ",  vol.  I.  p.  5. 
132 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

The  famous  French  critic  and  historian,  Taine's 
Taine,  holding  no  religious  faith  himself/^-"^''''^"-^ 
yet  declares  of  the  Calvinists:  ''  These  men 
are  the  true  heroes  of  England.  They 
founded  England,  in  spite  of  the  corruption 
of  the  Stuarts,  by  the  exercise  of  duty,  by 
the  practice  of  justice,  by  obstinate  toil,  by 
vindication  of  right,  by  resistance  to  op- 
pression, by  the  conquest  of  liberty,  by  the 
repression  of  vice.  They  founded  Scot- 
land; they  founded  the  United  States;  at 
this  day  they  are,  by  their  descendants, 
founding  Australia  and  colonizing  the 
world."  24 

Says  Motley:  ''  In  England  the  seeds  of  Motuys 
liberty,  wrapped  up  in  Calvinism  and  ^^•^^*^'^'^^" 
hoarded  through  many  trying  years,  were 
at  last  destined  to  float  over  land  and  sea, 
and  to  bear  largest  harvests  of  temperate 
freedom  for  great  commonwealths  that 
were    still    unborn."  ^^      ''  The    Calvinists 

**  "  English  Literature  ",  vol.  ii.  p.  472  (as   quoted 
by  McFetridge). 

2*  "The  UnJ»-2d  Netherlands",  vol.  iii.  p.  121. 


THE    CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

founded  the  commonwealths  of  England,  of 
Holland,  and  of  America."  ^^  "  To  Calvin- 
ists  ",  he  says  again,  ''  more  than  to  any 
other  class  of  men,  the  political  liberties 
of  England,  Holland,  and  America  are 
due."  27 

Says  Philip  Schafif,  the  Origen  of  the 
modern  world:  "  The  principles  of  the  Re- 
public of  the  United  States  can  be  traced 
thro'  the  intervening  link  of  Puritanism  to 
Calvinism,  which,  with  all  its  theological 
rigor,  has  been  the  chief  educator  of  manly 
characters  and  promoter  of  constitutional 
freedom  in  modern  times."  ^^ 

Says  Rufus  Choate,  the  great  American 
lawyer,  in  his  oration  on  "  The  Age  of  the 
Pilgrims,  Our  Heroic  Period":  *' In  the 
reign  of  Mary,  from  1553  to  1558,  a  thou- 
sand learned  Englishmen  fled  from  the 
stake  at  home  to  the  happier  states  of  con- 
tinental  Protestantism.      Of  these,    great 


"^  "The  United  Netherlands",  vol.  iv.  p.  548. 

"  Id.,  p.  547. 

^  *'  Creeds  of  Christendom  ",  p.  219. 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY    ITS    FRUITS 

numbers — I  know  not  how  many — came  to 
Geneva.  I  ascribe  to  that  five  years  in  Ge- 
neva an  influence  which  has  changed  the 
face  of  the  world.  I  seem  to  myself  to  trace 
to  it,  as  an  influence  on  the  English  char- 
acter, a  new  theology,  new  politics,  another 
tone  of  character,  the  opening  of  another 
era  of  time  and  liberty.  I  seem  to  myself 
to  trace  to  it  the  great  civil  war  in  Eng- 
land, the  republican  constitution  framed  in 
the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  the  theology  of 
Jonathan  Edwards,  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,  the  Independence  of  America."  ^^ 

The  conclusions  of  the  famous  Spanish  Casteiars 
scholar,  orator,  and  statesman,  Emilio  ^^^^^^^^y- 
Castelar,  at  one  time  Professor  of  History 
in  the  University  of  Madrid,  are  of  special 
interest  and  value.  As  a  Roman  Catholic, 
he  hated  Calvin  and  Calvinism.  He  says: 
"  It  was  necessary  for  the  republican  move- 
ment of  America  that  there  should  come  a 
morality  more  austere  than  Luther's,  the 
morality  of  Calvin,  and  a  Church  more  dem- 

^  "Works  of  Rufus  ChoaU,",  vol.  i.  p.  378. 


THE  CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ocratic  than  the  German,  the  Church  of 
Geneva.  The  Anglo-Saxon  democracy  has 
for  its  only  lineage  a  book  of  a  primitive  so- 
ciety— the  Bible.  It  is  the  product  of  a 
severe  theology  learned  by  the  few  Chris- 
tian fugitives  in  the  gloomy  cities  of  Hol- 
land and  of  Switzerland,  where  the  morose 
shade  of  Calvin  still  wanders.  .  .  .  And  it 
remains  serenely  in  its  grandeur,  forming 
the  most  dignified,  most  moral,  most  en- 
lightened and  richest  portion  of  the  human 
race."  ^^  One  feels  like  asking  Castelar 
how  a  fountain  so  bitter  could  send  forth 
such  sweet  waters. 

Says  Bancroft:  "The  light  of  Calvin's 
genius  shattered  the  mask  of  darkness 
which  Superstition  had  held  for  centuries 
before  the  brow  of  Religion.  Calvinism  in- 
spired its  converts  to  cross  the  Atlantic  and 
sail  away  from  the  traditions  of  the  Church, 
from  hereditary  power,  from  the  sover- 
eignty of  earthly  kings,  and  from  all  do- 
minion but  that  of  the  Bible  and  such  as 

*•  Harper's  Monthly,  June  and  July,  1872. 
136 


THE  CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

arose  from  natural  reason  and  equity.  He 
that  will  not  honor  the  memory  and  respect 
the  influence  of  Calvin  knows  but  Uttle  of 
the  origin  of  American  liberty."  ^^ 

Not  only  did  Calvinism  imbue  its  con-  invaluable 
verts  with  the  spirit  of  liberty,  it  srave  them  ^*''^^**^^i 

.  .  school. 

practical  training  in  the  rights  and  duties  of 
freemen.  Each  Calvinistic  congregation 
having  largely  an  independent  life  of  its 
own,  and  conducting  its  own  affairs  through 
officers  of  its  own  election,  constituted,  as 
Fiske  affirms,  ''  one  of  the  most  effective 
schools  that  has  ever  existed  for  training 
men  in  local  self-government."  ^^ 

The  influence  of  the  doctrines  of  Calvin-  church 
ism  upon  character  we  have  seen  in  a  {qx-^S'^'^'^'^"'^^^*^^ 

.       and  char- 

mer  chapter.  How  powerfully  also  its^^^^^^ 
method  of  church  government,  especially  in 
its  fully  developed  Presbyterian  form,  tends 
to  foster  in  the  individual  that  high  and 
self-respecting  type  of  manhood  which 
alone  gives  success  and  permanence  to  free 

'*  **  Miscellanies  ",  pp.  406,  407. 

•'  **Thc  Beginnings  of  New  England",  p.  59. 


THE  CREED  TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

institutions  is  matter  of  history  and  obser- 
vation. 
Illustration.  Pgr  example,  an  English  writer,  of  Epis- 
copalian sympathies,  Mr.  Richard  Heath, 
testifies  to  the  excellent  effect  of  the  Pres- 
byterian system  where  it  has  crossed  the 
Scottish  border  and  established  itself  in  the 
northern  shires  of  England:  "  The  North- 
umbrian peasant  is  largely  influenced  by  a 
form  of  Christianity  that  not  only  recog- 
nizes that  he  is  a  man,  but  that,  without 
ceasing  to  be  a  laboring  man,  tending  the 
sheep  or  following  the  plow,  he  can  be 
chosen,  and  is  chosen,  and  found  worthy  to 
be  an  elder  of  the  church."  He  goes  on  to 
speak  of  "  the  superior  educative  power  of 
the  Presbyterian  to  the  Church  of  England 
system,  as  seen  in  the  higher  form  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood  of  the  people  under 
its  control.  The  reason  is  clear:  the  one  is 
a  democratic  religion,  the  other  the  most 
aristocratic  in  the  world."  ^^ 

^  **  American   Church   History  *',   vol.  vi.   p.   293 
(1900). 

138 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS    FRUITS 

Should  any  member  of  a  Presbyterian  individual 
church  feel  that  injustice  has  been  done  him  ''^^^'^'  '''^'' 

guarded. 

by  the  Session,  through  misapprehension 
or  through  any  local  or  personal  prejudice, 
he  can  appeal,  if  he  will,  to  the  Presbytery, 
and  thence,  if  he  will,  to  the  Synod,  and 
thence,  if  he  will,  to  the  General  Assembly. 
The  rights  of  the  youngest,  poorest,  hum- 
blest member  are  thus  safeguarded  to  the 
uttermost. 

The  well-nigh  perfect  manner  in  which  "  without 
justice,  freedom,  order,  and  all  the  ends  of  '^^W^vair  ^ 
popular  self-government  are  secured  by  the 
Presbyterian  system  of  graded  represent- 
ative assemblies,  with  executive,  legislative, 
and  judicial  functions,  all  distinct,  yet  all 
working  together  as  component  parts  of 
a  well-ordered  whole,  has  won  the  admira- 
tion of  thinking  men  of  all  creeds.  Testi- 
mony from  a  remarkable  source  is  that  of 
the  late  able  and  distinguished  Roman 
Catholic,  Archbishop  Hughes  of  New 
York:  "Though  it  is  my  privilege",  he 
wrote,  "  to  regard  the  authority  exercised 
139 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

by  the  General  Assembly  as  usurpation,  still 
I  must  say,  with  every  man  acquainted  with 
the  mode  in  which  it  is  organized,  that  for 
the  purposes  of  popular  and  political  gov- 
ernment its  structure  is  little  inferior  to  that 
of  Congress  itself.  It  acts  on  the  principle 
of  a  radiating  centre,  and  is  without  an 
equal  or  a  rival  among  the  other  denomi- 
nations of  the  country."  ^^ 
Amazing  jj^g  Striking  similarity  between  the  con- 

dence,"  ftitution  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  and 

that  of  the  United  States  has  excited  much 
wondering  comment.  The  Hon.  W.  C. 
Preston  of  South  Carolina  wrote:  "  Cer- 
tainly it  was  the  most  remarkable  and  sin- 
gular coincidence  that  the  constitution  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  should  bear  such  a 
close  and  striking  resemblance  to  the  po- 
litical constitution  of  our  country."  ^^ 
The  expiana-  Upou  this  ''  most  remarkable  and  singu- 
lar coincidence  "  a  few  facts  from  history 

^  Quoted  in  '*  Presbyterians  and  the  Revolution", 
p.  28. 

**  "  Scotch  and  Irish  Seeds  ",  p.  346. 
140 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

may  shed  lig'ht.  In  Green's  "  History  of 
the  English  People  "  we  read,  the  reader  re- 
membering that  kirk  is  Scotch  for  church: 
*'  The  moral  power  which  Knox  created 
was  to  express  itself  through  the  ecclesias- 
tical forms  which  had  been  devised  by  the 
genius  of  Calvin.^^  The  new  force  of  pop- 
ular opinion  was  concentrated  and  formu- 
lated in  an  ordered  system  of  Kirk-Sessions 
and  Presbyteries  and  provincial  Synods, 
while  chosen  delegates  formed  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Kirk.  In  this  organiza- 
tion of  her  churches  Scotland  saw  herself 
for  the  first  time  the  possessor  of  a  really 
representative  system,  of  a  popular  govern- 
ment. Not  only  did  Presbyterianism  bind 
Scotland  together,  as  it  had  never  been 
bound  before,  by  its  administrative  organ- 
ization, but  it  called  the  people  at  large  to 
a  voice,  and,  as  it  turned  out,  a  decisive 
voice,  in  the  administration  of  affairs.    No 

^  More  accurately,  "  which  had  been  developed  by 
the  genius  of  Calrin  from  the  principles  laid  down  in 
Scripture." 

141 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

church  constitution  has  proved  in  practice 
so  democratic  as  that  of  Scotland.  Its  in- 
fluence in  raising  the  nation  at  large  to  a 
consciousness  of  its  power  was  shown  by 
the  change  which  passed  from  the  moment 
of  its  estabHshment  over  the  face  of  Scotch 
history."  ^7 
The  national  That  was  two  ccnturics  before  the 
^°  ^ '  achievement   of   American    independence. 

When,  therefore,  the  fathers  of  our  Repub- 
lic sat  down  to  frame  a  system  of  represent- 
ative popular  government,  their  task  was 
not  so  difficult  as  some  have  imagined. 
They  had  a  model  to  work  by.  As  Chief 
Justice  Tilghman  says:  ''The  framers  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  bor- 
rowed very  much  of  the  form  of  our  Repub- 
lic from  the  Constitution  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  of  Scotland." 
Summary.  '\Ye  scc  then  that  Calvinism  furnished 

the  foundation  principles  of  our  Republic; 
it  supplied  the  best  and  largest  part  of  the 
early  material  of  our  Republic;  it  served  as 

^  *•  Hist,  of  Eng.  People  ",  vol.  in.  p.  447. 
142 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

the  invaluable  training  school  of  our  Re- 
public; it  furnished  the  model  for  the  im- 
mortal constitution  of  our  Republic.  It  re- 
mains to  show  the  leading  part  that  Calvin- 
ism took  in  securing  the  national  independ- 
ence that  guaranteed  the  life  of  our  Re- 
public. 

The  briefest  statement  will  here  sufifice.  '*  a  Presby- 
The    facts    are    undisputed.      They    are ''^'**'""''**' 

ure, 

summed  up  in  two  sentences  by  Bancroft: 
"  The  Revolution  of  1776,  as  far  as  it  was 
affected  by  religion,  was  a  Presbyterian 
measure.  It  was  the  natural  outgrowth  of 
the  principles  which  the  Presbyterianism  of 
the  Old  World  planted  in  her  sons,  the 
English  Puritans,  the  Scotch  Covenanters, 
the  French  Huguenots,  the  Dutch  Calvin- 
ists,  and  the  (Scotch-Irish)  Presbyterians  of 
Ulster."  38 

As  late  as  August,  1775,  Thomas  Jeffer-  The  first 
son  said :    "  I  would  rather  be  in  depend-  '"'^.^" *.'* 
ence  on  Great  Britain,  properly  limited, 

^  Quoted    by  W.    H.    Roberts,    ••  Proceedings    of 
Seventh  General  Council,  1899",  p.  95, 

143 


THE  CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS    FRUITS 

than  on  any  nation  on  earth,  or  than  on  no 
nation.''  Washington  said  in  May,  1776: 
"  When  I  took  command  of  this  army 
(June,  1775)  /  abhorred  the  idea  of  independ- 
ence.'' "  The  first  voice  raised  in  Amer- 
ica ",  says  Bancroft,  "  to  destroy  all  con- 
nection with  Great  Britain  came  from  the 
Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians."  ^^  The  first 
Declaration  of  Independence,  certainly  the 
first  body  of  resolutions  to  that  effect,  was 
sent  forth  by  the  Mecklenburg  Assembly, 
in  session  at  Charlotte,  North  Carolina, 
composed  of  twenty-seven  stanch  Calvin- 
ists,  of  whom  nine' were  Presbyterian  ruling 
elders  and  one  a  Presbyterian  preacher. 
The  decidinz  When,  twelve  months  later,  Jefferson's 
r^^^Zr  Declaration  was  submitted  to  the  Conti- 
nental  Congress,  and  that  body  hesitated 
and  wavered.  Dr.  John  Witherspoon,  a 
Presbyterian  preacher,  the  only  clergyman 
in  the  Congress,  the  only  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  whose  name  is  graven  on  the  pedes- 
tal of  a  civic  statue  on  the  American  soil, 
arose  and  gave  the  deciding  voice.    '*  There 

"••Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  X.  p.  77. 
X44 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

is  a  tide  ",  he  said,  ''  in  the  affairs  of  men. 
We  perceive  it  now  before  us.  To  hesitate  is 
to  consent  to  our  own  slavery.  That  noble 
instrument  should  be  subscribed  this  very 
morning  by  every  pen  in  this  house. 
Though  these  gray  hairs  must  soon  de- 
scend to  the  sepulchre,  I  would  infinitely 
rather  that  they  descend  thither  by  the 
hand  of  the  executioner  than  desert  at  this 
crisis  the  sacred  cause  of  my  country." 
John  Witherspoon  was  a  lineal  descendant 
of  John  Knox. 

Witherspoon's  spirit  was  shared  by  the**  The Pres- 
whole    body    of   American    Presbyterians,  h^^^^^** 

^  ^  ^  Rebellion:* 

So  mtense,  universal,  and  aggressive  was 
their  zeal  for  liberty  that  the  struggle  of  the 
colonists  for  independence  was  spoken  of 
in  England  as  ''  The  Presbyterian  Rebel- 
lion ".  An  ardent  colonial  devotee  of  King 
George  wrote  home:  ''  I  fix  all  the  blame 
of  these  extraordinary  proceedings  upon 
the  Presbyterians.  They  have  been  the 
chief  and  principal  instruments  in  all  these 
flaming  measures.  They  always  do  and 
M5 


THE   CREED   TESTED    BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ever  will  act  against  government  from  that 
restless  and  turbulent  anti-monarchial  spirit 
which  has  always  distinguished  them  every- 
where." ^^  When  news  of  "  these  extraor- 
dinary proceedings "  reached  England, 
Horace  Walpole  said  in  the  English  Parlia- 
ment, "  Cousin  America  has  run  off  with  a 
Presbyterian  parson  ". 
i^ke  brunt  of  When  war's  thunders  and  lightnings  be- 
ihe  struggle.   ^^^  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^j^^   ^^^   Prcsbyterians 

breasted  the  storm.  ''  The  members  of  that 
Church  ",  says  the  author  of  the  sixth  vol- 
ume of  "  American  Church  History ", 
"bore  the  brunt  of  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence from  the  Hudson  to  the  Savan- 
nah." *^  Their  military  enthusiasm  was 
like  that  of  one  of  their  own  preachers,  who, 
when  the  patriots'  wadding  gave  out  in  a 
fight  close  by  his  church,  rushed  into  the 
building, — but  let  Bret  Harte  tell  the 
story: 


*•  "  Presbyterians  and  the  Revol«titio«'',  p.  49. 
«  p.  69. 

146 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

They  were  left  in  the  lurch 
For   the    want   of   more    wadding.      He    ra»    to   the 

church, 
Broke  the  door,  stripped  the  pews,  and  dashed  out 

in  the  road 
With  his  arms  full  of  hymn-books,  and  threw  down 

his  load 
At  their  feet.    Then  above  all  the  shouting  and  shots 
Rang  his  voice  :  '  Put  Watts  into  'em  ;  boys,  give  'em 

Watts.' 

"And  they  did.     That  is  all.    Grasses  spring,  flowers 

blow 
Pretty  much  as  they  did  ninety-three  years  ago. 
You  may  dig  anywhere,  and  you'll  turn  up  a  ball. 
But  not  always  a  hero  like  this;  and  that's  all." 

At  King-s  Mountain,  where  "  the  aspect  Victory  of 
of  the  war  was  changed  and  Cornwallis  left  ^^'^  ^^orur 

Catechism. 

no  choice  but  to  retreat  ,*^  all  six  of  the 
colonels  in  command  save  one  were  Presby- 
terian elders,  and  their  troops  were  mustered 
from  Presbyterian  settlements.  When  we 
remember  that  Generals  Morgan  and  Pick- 
ens, who  won  the  equally  pivotal  battle  of 
the  Cowpens,  were  also  Presbyterian  eld- 
ers, and  that  after  his  surrender  at  Sara- 
toga, Burgoyne  said  to  Morgan  concerning 

*'  *'  Bancroft's  Hist.  U.  S.",  vol.  x.  p.  340. 
147 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

his  Scotch-Irish  riflemen:  ''  Sir,  you  have 
the  finest  regiment  in  the  world  ";  when  we 
remember  that  ''  more  than  one  half  of  the 
of^cers  and  soldiers  of  the  American  army- 
were  Presbyterians,"  ^^  we  can  understand 
the  statement  of  Dr.  Elliott,  editor  of  the 
Western  organ  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
that  "  in  achieving  the  liberties  of  the 
United  States  the  Presbyterians  of  every 
class  were  foremost  ",  and  appreciate  Dr. 
Hodge's  remark  that  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism fought  through  successfully  the  war 
of  American  Independence. 


Had  we  space  we  could  show  how  our 
boasted  common-school  system  is  indebted 
for  its  existence  to  that  stream  of  influence 
which  flowed  from  the  Geneva  of  Calvin,^* 
through  Scotland  *^  and  Holland,  to  Amer- 

^  "Westminster  Anniversary  Addresses",  p.  30. 
^*  See  Chap.  II.  p.  96. 

**  "  Knox  returned   from   Geneva  fully  impressed 
with  the  conviction  that  the  education  of  the  masses 
148 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ica,  and  how  for  the  first  two  hundred  years 
of  our  history  almost  every  college  and 
seminary  of  learning,  and  almost  every 
academy  and  common  school  was  built  and 
sustained  by  Calvinists.  Says  Gen.  John 
Eaton,  LL.D.,  Ex-United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Education:  "The  Presbyterians 
by  universal  consent  stand  for  intelligence." 

We  could  show  what  an  immeasurable  in-  The  Sabbath 
fluence  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  ex-  ""'^  ^^' 

.  Family » 

erted  upon  the  national  character  through 
the  superlative  emphasis  it  has  ever  placed 
upon  those  two  sacred  institutions  on 
which  depend  the  purity  and  the  perma- 
nence of  our  nation's  life,  the  Sabbath  and 
the  Family.  As  Dr.  Landrum,  an  eminent 
Baptist  minister,  said  recently  at  Atlanta: 
*'  It  is  the  conservator  of  the  most  valuable 
principles.  It  has  the  soundest  scholarship. 
All  denominations  look  to  Presbyterianism 
for  a  wise  leadership  in  all  that  pertains  to 

is  the  strongest  bulwark  of  Protestantism  and  the 
surest  foundation  of  a  state."    *'  The  Puritan  in  Hol- 
land, Eng.  and  Am.",  vol.  ii.  p.  19,  note. 
149 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

the  preservation  of  the  Lord's  Day,  and  to 
the  preservation  of  the  Family." 
Benevolence.  We  could  show.how  pre-eminently  great 
and  rich  have  been  the  streams  of  benevo- 
lence by  which  the  Presbyterian  Church 
has  blessed  our  own  and  other  countries 
through  its  unequalled  power  to  develop  in 
its  members  the  character-elements  that 
command  success  and  the  consecration  that 
makes  that  success  tributary  to  the  service 
of  God  and  our  fellow  men.  On  this  point 
the  Rev.  Robt.  M.  Patterson,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
says,  concerning  the  American  Presbyte- 
rian Church:  ''  The  simple  fact  is,  that,  ab- 
solutely and  relatively,  Presbyterians  stand 
far  in  advance  of  any  other  denomination. 
About  half  of  all  the  moneys  raised  by  all 
the  churches  of  the  land  for  benevolent 
work  is  raised  by  them."  ^^ 

*•  "  American  Presbyterianism  *'  (1895),  p.  120. 
**  Benevolent  work "  does  not  include  the  moneys 
raised  by  each  individual  church  for  its  own  con- 
gregational purposes.  In  a  certain  pure  sense  of 
that  word  these  may  be  regarded  as  selfish  rather 
than  benevolent  contributions. 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

We  could  show  from  history  how  nearly  Revivals  of 
all  the  far-spreading  continental  reforma-  ^'  ^^^^*^' 
tions  and  revivals  of  religion,  which  from 
time  to  time  have  blessed  not  only  America 
but  Christendom,  have  been  of  Calvinistic 
origin,  after  the  type  of  that  first  great 
Christian  revival  in  Jerusalem  under  Peter, 
whose  preaching  embodied  such  bold  Cal- 
vinism as  "  Him,  being  delivered  by  the  de- 
terminate counsel  and  fore-knowledge  of 
God,  ye  have  taken  and  by  wicked  hands 
have  crucified  and  slain."    (Acts  2:  23.) 

We  could  show  how  incalculable  has  National 
been  the  service  rendered  the  nation  by  the  ^^"■^erskip. 
Presbyterian  Church  through  its  peculiar 
ability  to  develop  moral  and  intellectual 
manhood,  and  thus  fit  men  for  responsibil- 
ity and  leadership.  Prof.  Baldwin  of  the 
Yale  Law  School  pronounces  the  Presby- 
terian "  the  most  American  Church ", 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  says  she  develops  a 
"genuine  individuality;  the  love  of  law 
combined  with  the  love  of  freedom."  The 
power  and  prominence  of  Presbyterians  in 
151 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

civic  and  national  life  is  so  out  of  propor- 
tion to  their  numbers  that  the  secular  press 
has  made  it  a  matter  of  sharp  and  wonder- 
ing comment.  "  In  calling  the  roll  of  the 
great  men  of  this  nation,"  says  Dr.  Newell 
Dwight  HilHs,  ''  the  number  of  Presby- 
terian presidents,  of  legislators  and  jurists, 
of  authors  and  editors,  teachers  and  mer- 
chants, has  been  vastly  disproportionate 
to  the  membership  of  the  Church." ^"^  The 
Presbyterian  precedence  he  justly  describes 
as  "  this  unique  pre-eminence."  Ambassa- 
dor Bayard  recently  declared  that  Presby- 
terianism  stands  for  the  best  element  of 
American  greatness.  Mr.  Moody,  v^hose 
shrewd  views  of  men  were  only  matched 
by  his  unexampled  opportunities  for  ob- 
servation, said  of  the  Presbyterian  Church: 
"  That  Church  has  the  brains  of  the  United 
States."*^  To  such  expert  testiniony  to 
the  moral  and  intellectual  pre-eminence 
of  Presbyterians  may  be  added  the  state- 

*'  "Westminster  Anniversary  Addresses**,  p.  254. 
*•  Id.,  p.  314. 

152 


THE   CREED   TESTED   BY   ITS   FRUITS 

ment,  made  some  years  ago  by  the  greatest 
religious  weekly  of  the  world,  that  while 
the  Presbyterian  Church  was  not  the  larg- 
est, few  w^ould  deny  it  the  name  of  the 
leading  religious  denomination  of  America. 
The  above  facts  of  history  and  observa- 
tion we  have  set  forth,  not  to  stimulate  de- 
nominational vanity,  but  to  fill  us  with  grat- 
itude to  God  for  that  past  history  and  that 
present  eminence  which  should  be  to  every 
one  of  us 

"A  vantage-ground  for  nobleness"; 

above  all  to  kindle  in  our  hearts  a  holy  en- 
thusiasm for  that  Divine  system  of  truth, 
which,  under  God,  has  been  the  foremost 
factor  in  the  making  of  America  and  the 
modern  world. 

'53 


IV 
THE  CREED  ILLUSTRATED 


*^  As  for  you  ye  ihonghi  evil  against  me,  but  Goa 
meant  it  tinto good." — Gen.  50:  20. 


IV 

THE  CREED  ILLUSTRATED 

We  shall  illustrate  Calvinism  and  the 
Calvinistic  point  of  view  by  a  brief  discus- 
sion of  the  twin  doctrines  of  Predestination 
and  Providence. 

God  is  Sovereign.     He  reigns  Supreme  Predestina- 
in  fact  as  well  as  in  right.    This  universe  to  ^^'^'^  ""^^ 

.  .  Providence^ 

Him  IS  not  a  surprise,  a  defeat,  a  failure,  but 
a  development  of  His  eternal  purpose. 
That  purpose  is  Predestination.  That  de- 
velopment is  Providence.  The  one  is  the 
all-wise  predetermined  plan  in  the  mind  of 
God;  the  other  is  the  all-powerful  execution 
of  that  plan  in  the  administration  of  the  uni- 
verse. 

Says  an  able  commentator  and  divine: 
"  Calvinism,   tho'  it  is  often   represented 
157 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 


Method  §f 
Divine  gov- 
ernment. 


God  has  a 
plan. 


as  a  mere  system  of  doctrine  or  of  ab- 
stract dogmas  having  no  practical  bear- 
ing, is,  in  fact,  a  system  of  government — a 
method  and  form  in  which  the  Divine  power 
is  put  forth  in  the  administration  of  the  af- 
fairs of  the  universe.  It  is  based  on  the 
idea  that  God  rules;  that  He  has  a  plan; 
that  the  plan  is  fixed  and  certain;  that  it 
does  not  depend  on  the  fluctuations  of  the 
human  will,  on  the  caprice  of  the  human 
heart,  or  on  the  contingencies  and  uncer- 
tainties of  undetermined  events  in  human 
affairs.  It  supposes  that  God  is  supreme; 
that  He  has  authority;  that  He  has  a  right 
to  exercise  dominion;  that  for  the  good  of 
the  universe  that  right  should  be  exercised, 
and  that  infinite  power  is  put  forth  only  in 
accordance  with  a  plan." 

To  suppose  that  God  ever  acts  without  a 
plan,  in  a  purposeless,  random  way,  is  an 
impossible  conception  of  the  Divine  charac- 
ter. How  does  even  a  wise  man  act?  He 
first  determines  upon  the  end  he  desires  to 
attain,  and  then  upon  the  best  means  of  at- 
158 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

taining  it.  Before  the  architect  begins  his 
edifice,  he  makes  his  drawings  and  forms  his 
plans,  even  to  the  minutest  details  of  con- 
struction. In  the  architect's  brain  ^the 
building  stands  complete  in  all  its  parts  be- 
fore a  stone  is  laid.  So  with  the  merchant, 
the  lawyer,  the  farmer,  and  all  rational  and 
intelligent  men.  Their  activity  is  along  the 
line  of  previously  formed  purposes,  the  ful- 
filment, so  far  as  their  finite  capacities  will 
allow,  of  preconceived  plans.  Our  com- 
mon sense,  therefore,  teaches  us  that  in  His 
government  of  this  world  w^hich  He  has 
made,  God  is  sure  to  have  His  own  definite 
purposes  in  view,  and  His  own  definite 
plans  by  which  He  will  secure  their  fulfil- 
ment. 

It  is  also  evident  that  these  Divine  pur-  God's  plan 
poses  and  plans  must  include  not  some  but  (^■^^•^"'■^^<^<=- 
all  events,  "  whatsoever  comes  to  pass  ",^ 
otherwise  there  would  be  some  things  com- 
ing to  pass  which  He  had  not  designed  or 
expected  or  counted  on — which  is  incredi- 

*  Shorter  Catechism,  Question  7. 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 

ble,  and  which  mig'ht  defeat  the  purposes 
He  had  formed  in  reference  to  other  things 
— which  is  equally  incredible. 

The  control  of  the  greater  must  include 
the  control  of  the  less,  for  not  only  are 
great  things  made  up  of  little  things,  but 
history  shows  how  the  veriest  trifles  are 
continually  proving  the  pivots  on  which 
momentous  events  revolve.  The  per- 
sistence of  a  spider  nerved  a  despairing  man 
to  fresh  exertions  which  shaped  a  nation's 
future.  The  God  Who  predestinated  the 
course  of  Scottish  history  must  have 
planned  and  presided  over  the  movements 
of  the  tiny  insect  that  saved  Robert  Bruce 
from  despair. 

God  is  no  absentee  Deity,  sitting  outside 
the  universe  and  seeing  only  the  events 
that  lift  themselves  like  peaks  above 
the  common  level.  He  is  ''  everywhere 
present  ",2'  "  upholding,  directing,  dispos- 
ing, and  governing  all  creatures,  actions, 
and  things,  from  the  greatest  even  to  the 

^  Larger  Catechism,  Question  7. 
160 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 

least."  ^  The  affairs  of  the  universe  are 
controlled  and  guided,  how?  "  According 
to  the  purpose  of  Him  Who  worketh  all 
things  after  the  counsel  of  His  own  will."  * 
His  all-embracing  purpose  or  ''  decrees  ", 
says  the  Catechism,  ''  He  executeth  in  the 
works  of  creation  and  providence."  ^  That 
is  to  say,  Providence  is  God's  execution  of 
His  decrees;  in  other  words,  it  is  simply 
God's  universal  and  certain  fulfilment  of 
His  predetermined  purposes. 

While  illustrations  of  this  truth  crowd  the  story  oj 
Scriptures,  there  is  one  inspired  biography -^^^^■^'^• 
which  holds  and  will  ever  hold  the  gaze  of 
mankind,  because  in  that  life  above  any 
other  recorded  in  history  the  presiding  mind 
of  God  and  the  guiding  hand  of  God  are 
not  only  felt,  but  distinctly  traceable.  The 
story  of  Joseph  is  a  picture  in  miniature  of 
the  Divine  method  of  government  painted 
for  us  by  the  hand  of  inspiration.    Here  we 

^  "Confession  of  Faith",  Chap.  V,  section  r. 

*Eph.  I  :  II. 

^  Shorter  Catechism,  Question  8. 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 

have  Foreordination  made  familiar,  and 
Providence  made  palpable. 

Illustration.  In  the  42d  chapter  of  Genesis  we  see  the 
ten  sons  of  Jacob,  driven  by  stress  of  bitter 
famine  into  a  foreign  country,  and  there 
prostrating  themselves  before  their  un- 
known brother,  the  all-powerful  governor 
of  the  land,  and  dependent  upon  him  for  the 
means  of  life.  Was  this  pre-eminence  of 
Joseph  over  his  brethren  a  mere  accident 
of  fortune?  Did  it  just  happen  so?  On  the 
contrary,  it  was  distinctly  foretold  by  God 
to  Joseph's  family  twenty-two  years  before 
through  those  two  prophetic  dreams  of  the 
eleven  sheaves  and  the  eleven  stars  that 
did  him  obeisance.  It  was  simply  the  ful- 
filment of  God's,  predetermined  purpose, 
a  fulfilment  not  through  miracles,  but 
through  the  orderly  march  of  His  Provi- 
dence. 

Illustration,  In  the  37th  chapter  we  see  the  lad  Joseph 
in  the  hands  of  his  murderous  brothers  and 
begging  with  tears  for  his  life.  They  re- 
fuse. They  determine  to  kill  him  outright 
162 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 

at  once.  At  Reuben's  suggestion  they 
change  their  minds  and  decide  to  starve 
him  to  death  in  a  pit.  Reuben  disappears, 
intending  to  return  when  his  brethren  have 
gone  and  rescue  Joseph  and  restore  him  to 
his  father.  In  his  absence  a  merchant  cara- 
van passes  by  on  its  w^ay  to  Egypt.  They 
change  their  minds  again  and  at  Judah's 
suggestion  determine  to  sell  him  as  a  slave 
to  these  traders.  This  they  do  and  Joseph 
is  carried  off  to  Egypt.  Was  the  result  of 
all  these  purposes  and  cross-purposes  and 
changes  of  purpose  accidental?  Not  so. 
That  result  was  foreordained  of  God  to  ful- 
fil a  merciful  purpose  of  His.  As  Joseph 
said  twenty-two  years  later  to  his  penitent 
brothers:  ''  It  was  not  you  that  sent  me 
hither  but  God,  for  God  did  send  me  before 
you  to  preserve  life,  to  preserve  you  a  pos- 
terity in  the  earth  and  to  save  your  lives  by 
a  great  deliverance."  ^  Thus  Joseph's  go- 
ing to  Egypt,  though  apparently  fortui- 

*  Gen.  45  :  5.  7. 
163 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

tous,  was  but  the  fulfilment  of  a  Divine  pur- 
pose, a  fulfilment  not  through  miracle,  but 
through  the  natural  workings  of  Provi- 
dence. 
Illustration.  In  the  46th  chapter  we  see  Joseph  send- 
ing wagons  for  his  father's  household,  and 
the  whole  family,  with  all  their  wives  and 
little  ones,  moving  down  into  Egypt  and 
settling  in  the  land  of  Goshen.  This  re- 
moval to  Egypt  is  the  culmination  of  an 
extended  series  of  events,  most  of  which 
appear  entirely  fortuitous.  Jacob's  parti- 
ality to  Joseph  leads  to  his  brethren's  ha- 
tred; their  hatred  leads  to  his  being  sold  to 
Potiphar  in  Egypt;  the  wickedness  of  Pot- 
iphar's  wife  leads  to  his  imprisonment;  his 
imprisonment  leads  to  his  acquaintance 
with  the  royal  butler;  this  acquaintance 
leads  to  his  presentation  to  Pharaoh;  his 
service  to  Pharaoh  leads  to  his  exaltation 
over  all  Egypt  to  prepare  for  the  famine; 
the  famine  drives  his  brethren  down  into 
Egypt  to  seek  food  from  the  hand  of  his 
power;  his  power  enables  him  to  transport 
164 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

the  entire  family  to  Egypt  and  give  them  a 
home  in  the  richest  part  of  the  land. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  settlement  of 
Jacob's  family  in  Egypt  was  the  result  of  a 
long  and  complicated  chain  of  events, 
which  a  hundred  chances  might  have 
broken  at  a  hundred  points,  the  whole 
forming  to  human  eyes  what  we  are  ac- 
customed to  call  a  fortuitous  concurrence 
of  circumstances.  But  was  there  anything 
fortuitous?  Nay,  verily.  Every  link  of 
that  chain  was  forged  by  the  hand  of  God 
Himself  to  bring  about  that  very  result, 
and  that  result  was  the  fulfilment  of  a  Di- 
vine purpose  which  God  had  revealed  to 
Abraham  two  centuries  before,  the  pur- 
pose, viz.,  to  make  Egypt  the  training 
school  of  His  chosen  people.  Long  before 
any  of  the  present  actors  were  in  existence, 
before  a  child  was  born  to  Abraham,  God 
had  said  to  him:  "  Know  of  a  surety  that 
thy  seed  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  land  that  is 
not  theirs,  and  shall  serve  them,  and  they 
shall  afflict  them  four  hundred  years,  and 
165 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 


Foreordina- 

tion  and 
fatalism. 


also  that  nation  whom  they  shall  serve  will 
I  judge;  and  afterward  shall  they  come  out 
with  great  substance."  ^  So  we  see  that 
these  intricate  happenings  that  issued  in 
the  migration  to  Egypt  were  but  the  or- 
derly fulfilment  by  Providence  of  God's 
predetermined  purpose. 

The  above  Scripture  narrative  is  but  an 
inspired  illustration  of  how  God  governs 
the  world  always  and  everywhere.  The 
God  of  Providence  is  the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever. 

The  doctrine  of  our  Standards  is  not  that 
*'  whatever  must  be,  must  be  ",  but  that 
whatever  God  has  decreed  and  purposed 
shall  be.  The  one  expression  attributes  the 
course  of  events  to  a  bUnd  mechanical  ne- 
cessity, the  other  to  the  inteUigent  purpose 
of  a  personal  God.  The  one  is  fatalism, 
the  other  Foreordination,  Predestination, 
Providence.  The  Bible  does  not  say 
"whatever  must  be,  must  be".     It  says: 


'  Gen.  15  :  13,  14. 
166 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 

"  That  that  is  determined  shall  be  done."  ^ 
It  says  again:  ''The  Lord  of  hosts  hath 
sworn,  saying,  '  Surely  as  I  have  thought^ 
so  shall  it  come  to  pass;  and  as  I  have  pur- 
posed, so  shall  it  stand.'  "  ^  It  reveals  to  us 
the  glorious  truth  that  our  human  hves  and 
our  sensitive  human  hearts  are  held,  not  in 
the  iron  cog-whee-s  of  a  vast  and  pitiless 
Fate,  not  in  the  whirling  loom  of  a  crazy 
Chance,  but  in  the  almighty  hands  of  an  in- 
finitely good  and  wise  God. 

How  God  can  be  sovereign  and  yet  man  i^oreordina- 
be  free,  how  God  as  Supreme  Ruler  can  de-  ^^'^^^  and  free 

agency, 

cree  events  beforehand  and  bring  them  to 
pass  exactly  as  decreed  without  interfering 
with  the  freedom  of  the  human  agent,  is  a 
question  man  cannot  answer.  But  God 
can.  God  knows  how  to  govern  the  nat- 
ural world  by  fixed  laws,  the  brute  creation 
according  to  their  instincts,  and  human  be- 
ings agreeably  to  their  natures.  By  the  Di- 
vine decree  "  neither  is  violence  offered  to 

®  Dan.  II  :  36. 
•  Is.  14  :  24. 
167 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 


the  will  of  the  creatures,  nor  is  the  liberty 
or  contingency  of  second  causes  taken 
away,  but  rather  established."  ^^  And  the 
perfect  harmony  between  Foreordination 
and  free  agency  which  we  cannot  explain 
in  our  theories  we  can  plainly  see  in  God's 
practice. 

Illustration.  For  example,  Jacob's  preference  for  Jo- 
seph, the  wise  and  good  child  of  his  beloved 
Rachel,  above  the  ten  coarse  and  brutal  sons 
of  Leah,  Bilhah,  and  Zilpah,  was  the  nat- 
ural prompting  both  of  his  judgment  and 
his  heart.  Here  is  free  agency;  but  here 
also  is  Foreordination;  for  this  partiality, as 
the  result  showed,  was  the  first  step  in  the 
fulfilment  of  God's  plan  for  saving  thou- 
sands of  human  lives. 

Illustration.  Joseph's  brethren  hate  him  and  sell  him 
into  slavery,  seeking  to  carry  out  the  free 
and  unconstrained  impulses  of  their  jealous 
and  wicked  hearts;  and  the  Ishmaelite  mer- 
chants are  naturally  delighted  to  secure  a 
young  and  handsome  slave  for  a  mere  trifle. 

"  "Confession  of  Faith",  Chap.  Ill,  section  i. 
l68 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

Here  is  free  agency,  attested  in  the  con- 
science-smitten cry:  "  We  are  verily  guilty 
concerning  our  brother";  but  here  also  is 
Foreordination;  for  these  people,  while  free 
agents,  were  also  so  entirely  God's  agents 
that  the  Scripture  says  it  was  God  that 
"  sent  Joseph  into  Egypt  to  preserve  life  ". 

Potiphar's  wife  was  free  in  seeking  to  iiiustratioyi 
carry  out  first  her  lustful  and  then  her  re- 
vengeful impulses  toward  Joseph;  the  royal 
butler  was  free  in  carrying  out  his  courtier- 
like impulses  toward  Pharaoh;  Pharaoh 
was  free  in  carrying  out  his  humane  and 
statesmanlike  impulses  toward  his  famine- 
threatened  nation;  Joseph  was  free  in 
carrying  out  his  filial  impulses  in  sending 
for  his  beloved  father.  Here  in  each  case 
was  the  most  unquestionable  free  agency; 
but  here  also  was  the  most  unquestionable 
Foreordination;  for  the  result  of  it  all  was 
the  exact  fulfilment  of  a  purpose  which  God 
had  revealed  to  Abraham  two  centuries  be- 
fore, that  not  Canaan  but  fertile  and  civil- 
169 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 

ized  Egypt  should  be  the  nursery  of  the 
chosen  people. 
niustration.  In  the  Mediterranean  the  vessel  carrying 
Paul  to  Caesar  at  Rome  is  caught  in  a  vio- 
lent storm  and  driven  helpless  and  half- 
sinking  before  the  unceasing  fury  of  the 
tempest.  God  says  to  Paul:  "  Fear  not; 
thou  must  be  brought  before  Caesar,  and 
behold  I  have  given  thee  all  them  that  sail 
with  thee."^^  Here  is  the  Divine  decree, — 
All  shall  be  saved.  Shortly  after,  as  the 
sailors  are  secretly  preparing  to  escape  in 
the  boat  from  the  doomed  ship,  Paul  says 
to  the  centurion  and  soldiers:  *'  Except 
these  abide  in  the  ship,  ye  cannot  be 
saved."  ^^  Here  is  free  agency  and  the 
efficiency  of  second  causes,  liberty  in  the 
midst  of  certainty,  a  human  will  that  can. 
The  soldiers  cut  the  boat  adrift;  the  vessel 
is  wrecked,  but  all  escape  safe  to  land. 
Here  are  two  undeniable  facts:  "  All  shall 
be  saved";   "Except  these  abide  in  the 

"  Acts  27  :  24. 

"  Acts  27  :  31. 

170 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 

ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved."  Here  are  two 
co-operating  factors,  Divine  Predestination 
and  human  free  agency.  It  was  God's  pur- 
pose to  save  all  lives  on  the  ship.  It  was 
Paul's  purpose  to  use  the  human  means 
within  his  reach.  God  has  a  purpose  and  is 
at  work.  Paul  has  a  purpose  and  is  at 
work.  And  the  result  of  the  forces  corre- 
lated and  co-working  is  the  saving  of  all  on 
board,  the  exact  fulfilment  of  the  Divine 
decree.^^ 

In  that  dread  yet  glorious  drama  of  hu-  illustration, 
man  sin  and  redeeming  love  which  culmi- 
nated on  Calvary,  we  see  the  human  actors 
moving  on  the  stage  influenced  by  human 
motives,  exercising  their  freedom  of  will, 
and  responsible  for  what  with  ''  wicked 
hands "  they  do.  Caiphas,  Judas,  the 
priests,  Herod,  Pilate,  all  act  according  to 
the  self-promptings  of  their  various  na- 
tures. We  hear  their  consultations,  their 
agreements,  and  disagreements.     We  see 

"  Pitzer's   "  Predestination,   God's  Working   Plan 
of  His  Universe  ",  p.  12. 

171 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

their  stratagems,  their  plans,  their  changes 
of  plan.  Human  forces — pride,  bigotry, 
curiosity,  envy,  covetousness,  and  malice — 
are  in  fullest,  freest,  most  abandoned  play. 
Yet  every  step  and  every  act  of  every  actor 
had  not  only  been  preordained,  but  pre- 
dicted, and  the  judgment  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  given  in  these  solemn  words: 
"  Him  being  delivered  by  the  determinate 
counsel  and  foreknozvledge  of  God,  ye  have 
taken,  and  by  wicked  hands  have  crucified 
and  slain."  ^*  "  For  of  a  truth  against  Thy 
holy  Child  Jesus,  whom  Thou  hast  anointed, 
both  Herod  and  Pontius  Pilate,  with  the 
Gentiles  and  the  people  of  Israel,  were 
gathered  together,  to  do  whatsoever  Thy 
hand  and  Thy  counsel  determined  before  (Re- 
vised Version,  foreordained)  to  be  done.''  ^* 
••  T^g  secret  God's  ForeordinatioH,  therefore,  we  can- 
things  belong  ^^^  ^oubt.    Neither  can  we  doubt  the  fore- 

unto  the  Lord 

our  God."      ordained  freedom  of  the  moral  creature. 
This  freedom  is  asserted  or  assumed  on 

^*  Acts  2  :  23. 
^*  Acts  4  :  27,  28. 
172 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

every  page  of  Scripture.  It  is  emphatically 
declared  in  our  Standards.  It  is  loudly  pro- 
claimed by  the  universal  consciousness  of 
mankind.  Here  are  two  impregnable  facts: 
God's  Predestination  Lud  man's  eternally 
predestinated  freedom.  Though  the  prob- 
lem of  their  reconciliation  is  insoluble  to 
our  finite  sin-beclouded  minds,  ignorant  as 
we  probably  are  of  some  of  the  essentials  of 
the  problem,  and  incapable  as  we  undeni- 
ably are  of  appreciating  the  significance  of 
the  Infinite  Factor  involved,  yet  it  is  clear 
from  Scripture  and  history  that  the  prob- 
lem presents  no  difficulty  to  God.  Reason, 
religion,  and  philosophy  alike  require  us  to 
accept  both  facts,  denying  neither,  abating 
the  force  of  neither, ''  holding  to  the  Divine 
efficiency  without  ffinching,  making  our 
faith  stout  and  masculine  with  it;  holding 
equally  to  human  accountability,  making 
cur  faith  elastic  and  agile  with  it  ";  and  as 
to  the  harmony  between  them,  we  may 
leave  it  and  leave  it  cheerfully,  till  we  stand 
on  higher  summits  in  a  clearer  light. 
173 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

providence  Overhung  with  a  m3^stery  impenetrable 
as  yet  to  human  eyes  is  the  relation  of  the 
Divine  Providence  to  human  sin.  Our 
Standards  are  careful  to  guard  the  charac- 
ter of  God  from  any  aspersion  in  view  of  the 
dread  mystery  of  evil.  They  teach  that  God 
cannot  be  tempted  with  evil,  neither  tempt- 
eth  He  any  man.  They  refer  sin  imme- 
diately to  the  "  freedom  and  power  to 
do  that  which  is  good  'V^  originally  given 
to  man  as  a  moral  creature.  Of  all  sinful 
acts  whatsoever,  they  affirm  with  emphasis 
that  "  the  sinfulness  thereof  proceedeth 
only  from  the  creature  and  not  from  God, 
Who,  being  most  holy  and  righteous, 
neither  is  nor  can  be  the  author  or  ap- 
prover of  sin."  ^^ 

sinftii  acts  That  sinful  acts,  however,  are  included  in 
God's  plan  is  a  truth  abundantly  evident  in 
Scripture. 

"  Saul  took  a  sword  and  fell  upon  it."  ^^ 

**  "Confession  of  Faith",  Chap.  IX,  section  2. 
^''  Id.,  Chap.  V,  section  4. 
^^  I  Chron.  10 :  4. 

174 


included  in 
God 's  plan. 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

It  was  his  own  wicked  act.  Yet  it  fulfilled  a 
Divine  purpose  revealed  years  before  con- 
cerning David;  it  executed  Divine  justice; 
Scripture  speaks  of  it  as  the  punitive  act  of 
God  Himself.  ''  So  Saul  died  for  his  trans- 
gressions which  he  committed  against  the 
Lord.  And  he  inquired  not  of  the  Lord; 
therefore  He  slew  him  and  returned  the 
kingdom  unto  David  the  son  of  Jesse."  ^^ 

The  act  of  his  brethren  in  selling  Joseph 
into  Egypt  was  an  evil  act.  Yet  it  formed 
an  integral  part  of  God's  plan.  It  was  in- 
tended to  produce  the  most  beneficial  re- 
sults. "  As  for  you  ",  said  Joseph  to  his 
brethren,  ''  ye  thought  evil  against  me,  but 
God  meant  it  unto  good  to  bring  to  pass  as 
it  is  this  day,  to  save  much  people  alive."  ^^ 

There  never  was  a  more  evil  act  than  that 
of  those  who 

"  slew  the  Lord, 
And  left  their  memories  a  world's  curse." 

"  By  wicked  hands  ",  says  the  Scripture, 
He  was  crucified  and  slain.    Yet  it  was  "  by 

^'  I  Chron.  lo  :  13. 
^  Gen.  50  :  20. 


THE   CREED    ILLUSTRATED 

the   determinate   counsel   and   foreknowl- 
edge of  God  ". 

Supremely  wicked  was  the   conspiracy 
that  contrived  His  death,  yet  the  conspira- 
tors "  were  gathered  together  to  do  what- 
soever Thy  hand  and  Thy  counsel  deter- 
mined before  to  be  done  ". 
**T^g  Lord        Did  we  believe  that  so  potent  and  fearful 
\'h^^^^ til    ^  ^  thing  as  sin  had  broken  into  the  originally 
rejoue."         holy  Order  of  the  universe  in  defiance  of 
God's  purpose,  and  is  rioting  in  defiance  of 
His  power,  we  might  well  surrender  our- 
selves to  terror  and  despair.    Unspeakably 
comforting  and  strengthening  is  the  Scrip- 
tural teaching  of  our  Standards  ^^  that  be- 
neath all  this  wild  tossing  and  lashing  of 

^^  "  Confession  of  Faith  ",  Chap.  V,  section  4.  "  The 
almighty  power,  unsearchable  wisdom,  and  infinite 
goodness  of  God,  so  far  manifest  themselves  in  His 
providence,  that  it  extendeth  itself  even  to  the  first 
fall,  and  all  other  sins  of  angels  and  men,  and  that 
not  by  a  bare  permission,  but  such  as  hath  joined 
with  it  a  most  wise  and  powerful  bounding,  and 
otherwise  ordering  and  governing  of  them,  in  a  mani- 
fold dispensation,  to  His  own  holy  ends;  yet  so,  as 
the  sinfulness  thereof  proceedeth  only  from  the  crea- 
ture", etc.,  etc. 

176 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

evil  purposes  and  agencies  there  lies,  in 
mighty  and  controlling  embrace,  a  Divine 
purpose  that  governs  them  all.  Over  sin 
as  over  all  else,  God  reigns  Supreme.  His 
Sovereign  Providence  "  extendeth  to  the 
first  fall  and  all  other  sins  of  angels  and 
men  ",  so  that  these  are  as  truly  parts  and 
developments  of  His  Providence  as  are  the 
movements  of  the  stars  or  the  activities  of 
unfallen  spirits  in  heaven  itself.^^  Having 
chosen,  for  reasons  most  wise  and  holy 
though  unrevealed  to  us,  to  admit  sin,  He 
hath  joined  to  this  bare  permission  a  ''  most 
wise  and  powerful  bounding  "  of  all  sin,  so 
that  it  can  never  overleap  the  lines  which 
He  has  prescribed  for  its  imprisonment, 
and  such  an  "  ordering  and  governing  "  of 
it,  as  will  secure  ''  His  own  holy  ends  ",  and 
manifest  in  the  final  consummation  not 
only  His  "  almighty  Power  "  but  His  "  un- 
searchable Wisdom "  and  His  "  infinite 
Goodness  '*. 

^2  Morris's  "Theology  of   the  Westminster   Sym- 
Dols  ",  p.  223. 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

Grand  truth  Thus  wc  rise  to  the  height  of  that  sub- 
^T^t  d^  Ume,  eternal,  all-comprehending  decree 
and  plan  of  God,  to  fulfil  which  ''  He  doth 
uphold,  direct,  dispose,  and  govern  all  crea- 
tures, actions,  and  things,  from  the  greatest 
even  to  the  least,  by  His  most  v^ise  and  holy 
Providence,  according  to  His  infallible 
foreknowledge,  and  the  free  and  immutable 
counsel  of  His  own  will,  to  the  praise  of  the 
glory  of  His  wisdom,  power,  justice,  good- 
ness, and  mercy."  ^^ 
Transfigures  Upou  the  material  universe  this  mighty 
doctrine  sheds  a  transfiguring  radiance. 
It  consecrates  every  branch  of  physical 
science.  The  student  of  nature  in  tracing 
out  her  laws  and  processes  feels  with  Kep- 
ler that  he  is*  "  thinking  the  thoughts  of 
God  after  Him  ". 
Glorifies  his-  From  this  faith  there  falls  a  yet  greater 
Zunc^  lifg  fe^o^y  upon  the  history  and  life  of  man.  It 
invests  them  with  a  Divine  significance.  It 
relates  them  to  the  eternities  past  and  to 
come.     The  obscurest  task  in  life  is  en- 

^^  "Confession  of  Faith  ",  Chap.  V,  section  i. 

178 


ill  man  life. 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

nobled  by  the  thought  that  it  is  a  thread  in 
the  warp  and  woof  of  that  Divine  purpose 
at  which  we  are  ever  weaving  in  the  cease- 
less loom  of  time. 

It  is  a  doctrine  unspeakably  precious  to  Most  con 
the  Christian  heart  amid  the  storms  and  M^^^s- 
darkness  of  this  earthly  pilgrimage — to 
know  that  every  trial,  every  burden,  every 
bereavement,  every  sorrow  has  been  fore- 
seen and  foreappointed  by  a  wisdom  that 
cannot  err  and  by  a  love  that  cannot 
change, 

"That  every  cloud,  that  spreads  above 
And  veileth  love,  itself  is  love." 

Instinctively  in  its  sorrow  the  heart  clings 
to  this  faith,  feeling  that  in  fatherly  kind- 
ness the  affliction  was  foreordained,  for  rea- 
sons wise  though  unknown,  and  saying  in 
trust,  though  it  be  in  tears,  not,  "  It  is 
chance;  it  is  ill-fortune",  but  ''It  is  the 
Lord,  let  Him  do  what  seemeth  Him 
good  ".  ''For  we  know  that  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  to 
179 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

them  who  are  the  called  according  to  His 
purpose."  ^^  And  this  blessed  purpose  of 
good  the  next  verse  declares:  "  For  whom 
He  did  foreknow  He  also  did  predestinate 
to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son." 
Most  ener-  The  most  Comforting  and  ennobling  is 

gizmg.  ^^^  ^^^  most  energizing  of  faiths.    That  its 

grim  caricature,  fatalism,  has  developed  in 
human  hearts  an  energy  at  once  subHme 
and  appalling  is  one  of  the  commonplaces 
of  history.2^  The  early  and  overwhelming 
onrush  of  Mohammedanism,  which  swept 
the  East  and  all  but. overthrew  the  West, 
was  due  to  its  devotees'  conviction  that  in 
their  conquests  they  were  but  executing  the 
decrees  of  Allah.  Attila  the  Hun  was  up- 
borne in  his  terrible  and  destructive  course 
by  his  belief  that  he  was  the  appointed 
*'  Scourge  of  God  ".  The  energy  and  au- 
dacity which  enabled  Napoleon  to  attempt 
and   achieve  apparent  impossibilities  was 

2*  Rom.  8  :  28. 

2*  T.  V.  Moore's  "  Power  and  Claims  of  a  Calvinistic 
Literature  ",  p.  10. 

180 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

nourished  by  the  secret  conviction  that  he 
was  ^'  the  man  of  destiny  ".  FataHsm  has 
begotten  a  race  of  Titans.  Their  energy 
has  been  superhuman,  because  they  have 
believed  themselves  the  instruments  of  a 
superhuman  power. 

If  the  grim  caricature  of  this  doctrine  has 
breathed  such  energy,  the  doctrine  itself 
must  inspire  a  yet  loftier,  for  all  that  is  en- 
ergizing in  it  remains  with  added  force 
when  for  a  blind  fate,  or  a  fatalistic  deity, 
we  substitute  a  wise,  decreeing  God.  Let 
me  but  feel  that  in  every  commanded  duty, 
in  every  needed  reform,  I  am  but  working 
out  an  eternal  purpose  of  Jehovah;  let  me 
but  hear  behind  me,  in  every  battle  for 
right,  the  tramp  of  the  Infinite  Reserves; 
and  I  am  lifted  above  the  fear  of  man  or 
the  possibility  of  final  failure.  I  am  in- 
spired with  a  Divine  strength  and  confi- 
dence. So  in  former  chapters  we  have  seen 
how  in  the  long  struggle  for  human  ad- 
vancement, civil  and  religious,  wherever 
the  surge  of  battle  has  rolled  fiercest  and 
i8i 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

fastest  and  the  day  of  toil  has  hung  hottest 
and  heaviest,  there  always  have  been  found 
the  holders  of  this  faith.  Rooted  in  the 
Divine  Word,  this  doctrine  has  borne 
through  all  the  ages  heroes  and  martyrs 
innumerable.  Against  them,  as  against 
Joseph,  have  been  used  all  the  weapons 
that  rage  and  Late  could  devise.  But 
in  dungeons,  in  dens  and  caves  of  the 
earth,  on  battle-field,  rack,  and  scaffold, 
they  were  more  thaxi  conquerors.  For  they 
knew  with  a  victorious  confidence,  that  not 
Satan,  or  chance,  or  fate,  but  God  was  Sov- 
ereign; that  even  the  wrath  and  wicked- 
ness of  men  were  but  carrying  out  His  eter- 
nal purpose;  and  that  the  day  was  surely 
coming  when  to  all  these  hostile  agencies 
they  could  say,  as  Joseph  said  to  his  breth-' 
ren:  "  As  for  you,  ye  thought  evil  against 
me  but  God  meant  it  unto  good/' 

APPENDIX 

It  may  interest  our  readers  to  learn  that 
the    Calvinistic   view   of   nature   and   life, 
182 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

which  was  derived  exclusively  from  the 
Scriptures,  is  in  striking  harmony  with 
modern  scientific  philosophy  and  with  the 
ascertained  facts  of  history  and  observa- 
tion. Regarding  the  grounds  of  the  Divine 
choice,  Matthew  Arnold,  the  trained  stu- 
dent of  life  and  history,  whose  sympathies 
were  not  with  Calvinism,  frankly  says:  *'In 
rebutting  the  Arminian  theory  the  Calvin- 
ists  are  in  accordance  with  historical  truth 
and  with  the  real  march  of  human  affairs."  ^ 
The  historian  Froude,  himself  held  by  no 
trammels  of  sect  or  party,  unhesitatingly 
afifirms  that  "  Calvinism  is  nearer  to  the 
facts,  facts  which  no  casuistry  can  explain 
away."  ^  With  a  different  nomenclature, 
and  a  different  idea  of  the  truth  of  super- 
naturalism,  the  foremost  modern  scientific 
philosophers  hold  the  Calvinistic  world- 
view.  Mr.  Froude  cites  as  examples  John 
Stuart  Mill  and  Mr.  Buckle.  With  equal 
appositeness  he   might  have  named   Mr. 

*  "St.  Paul  and  Protestantism",  p.  21. 
reat  ; 

183 


THE  CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

Herbert  Spencer,  Mr.  Lecky,  Prof.  Huxley, 
and  many  more.  Sadly  as  these  may  di- 
verge on  the  question  of  God's  rational  will 
and  free  personality,  extremely  as  their 
necessitarian  metaphysics  may  conflict  with 
the  true  doctrine  of  His  Providence  and 
grace,  their  impression  of  the  co-ordinated 
facts  of  observation  is  thoroughly  Calvin- 
istic. 

We  submit  upon  this  point  the  compact 
yet  luminous  statement  of  the  celebrated 
Dr.  Abraham  Kuyper,  Professor  in  the 
University  of  Amsterdam,  Member  of  the 
States  General  of  Holland,  and  one  of  the 
profoundest  of  living  thinkers.  "  It  is  a 
fact  ",^  he  says,  "  that  the  more  thorough 
development  of  science  in  our  age  has  al- 
most unanimously  decided  in  favor  of  Cal- 
vinism with  regard  to  the  antithesis  between 
the  unity  and  stability  of  God's  decree, 
which  Calv.'nism  professes,  and  the  super- 
ficiality and  ^ooseness,  which  the  Armin- 
ians  preferred.     The  systems  of  the  great 

•  "  Lectures  on  Calvinism",  p.  149. 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

modern  philosophers  are  almost  to  one  in 
favor  of  unity  and  stability.  Buckle's  '  His- 
tory of  the  Civilization  in  England'  has  suc- 
ceeded in  proving  the  firm  order  of  things 
in  human  life  with  astonishing,  almost 
mathematical,  demonstrative  force.  Lom- 
broso,  and  his  entire  school  of  criminalists, 
place  themselves  on  record  in  this  respect 
as  moving  on  Calvinistic  lines.  And  the 
latest  hypothesis,  that  the  laws  of  heredity 
and  variation,  which  control  the  whole  or- 
ganization of  nature,  admit  of  no  exception 
in  the  domain  of  human  life,  has  already 
been  accepted  as  '  the  common  creed  '  by 
all  evolutionists.  Though  I  abstain  at  pres- 
ent from  any  criticism  either  of  these  philo- 
sophical systems  or  of  these  naturalistic 
hypotheses,  so  much  at  least  is  very  clearly 
demonstrated  by  them,  that  the  entire  de- 
velopment of  science  in  our  age  presup- 
poses a  cosmos,  which  does  not  fall  a  prey 
to  the  freaks  of  chance,  but  exists  and  de- 
velops from  one  principle,  according  to  a 
firm  order,  aiming  at  one  fixed  plan.  This 
185 


THE   CREED   ILLUSTRATED 

is  a  claim  which  is,  as  it  clearly  appears, 
diametrically  opposed  to  Arminianism,  and 
in  complete  harmony  with  Calvinistic  be- 
lief, that  there  is  one  Supreme  will  in  God, 
the  cause  of  all  existing  things,  subjecting 
them  to  fixed  ordinances  and  directing 
them  towards  a  pre-established  plan.  As  a 
Calvinist  looks  upon  God's  decree  as  the 
foundation  and  origin  of  the  natural  laws, 
in  the  same  manner  also  he  finds  in  it  the 
firm  foundation  and  the  origin  of  every 
moral  and  spiritual  law;  both  these,  the  nat- 
ural as  well  as  the  spiritual  laws,  forming 
together  one  high  order,  which  exists  ac- 
cording to  God's  command,  and  wherein 
God's  counsel  will  be  accomplished  in  the 
consummation  of  His  eternal,  all-embrac- 
ing plan." 

i86 


V 

THE  CREED  CATHOLIC 


**  Endeavoring  to  keep  the  um'ty  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  bond  of  peace.  There  is  one  body,  and  one  Spirit, 
even  as  ye  are  called  in  o?te  hope  of  your  calling;  one 
Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of 
^//."—Eph.  4:3-5. 


THE  CREED  CATHOLIC 

The  catholicity  of  Presbyterianism/  its 
liberality  of  thought  and  feeling,  its  free- 
dom from  sectarian  narrowness  and  big- 
otry, is  one  of  its  crowning  characteristics. 
Benjamin  Harrison,  that  noble  gentleman, 
statesman  and  Christian,  whose  death  our 
whole  country  still  mourns,  said  with  truth: 
'*  T-here  is  no  body  of  Christians  in  the 
world  that  opens  its  arms  wider  or  more 
lovingly  to  all  who  love  the  Master  than 
the  Presbyterian  Church." 

The  catholicity  of  Presbyterianism  is  no  ou^  stand- 
mere  sentiment.     It  is  not  a  thing  of  indi-  '^^^^  catholu 
vidual  profession  or  platform  declamation. 
It  is  rooted  in  our  creed.    It  is  proclaimed 

^  The  words  "  catholicity  "  and  "  catholic  ",  as  used 
by  the  author  in  this  chapter,  have  no  reference  to 
the  Church  of  Rome. 

189 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

in  our  Standards.  It  is  embodied  in  our 
doctrine  of  the  Church.  ''  The  visible 
Church  ",  says  our  Confession,  "  consists  of 
all  those  throughout  the  world  who  profess 
the  true  religion  together  with  their  chil- 
dren." ^  Thus  formally  and  publicly  do  we 
repudiate  the  name  of  "  the  "  church  and 
claim  only  to  be  a  church  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Not  only  do  our  Standards  contain  no  de- 
nunciation of  the  antagonistic  views  of  sis- 
ter evangelical  churches,  they  are  said  to 
be  the  only  church  Standards  in  existence 
which  make  explicit  and  authoritative 
recognition  of  other  evangelical  churches 
as  "  true  branches  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ."  ^  To  the  "  Communion  of 
Saints  ",  our  Confession  devotes  an  entire 
chapter.  We  are  there  taught  that  our 
"  holy  fellowship  and  communion  "  in  each 
other's  gifts  and  graces,  in  worship  and  mu- 
tual service  of  love,  "  is  to  be  extended 

'  "Confession  of  Faith",  Chap.  XXV,  sec.  2. 
*"Book    of   Church    Order",    Chap.    II,    sec.    ii. 
par.  ii. 

190 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

unto  all  those  who  in  every  place  call  upon 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  ^ 

The  catholicity  of  our  Standards  finds  Recognition 
beautiful  expression  in  the  Presbyterian  ^-^J^^^^^^J"^ 
attitude  toward  all  sister  evangelical 
churches.  While  a  branch  of  evangelical 
Christendom  unchurches  all  sister  denomi- 
nations, such  action  is  abhorrent  to  Pres- 
byterian feeling  and  unknown  to  Presbyte- 
rian practice.  Members  and  ministers  of 
other  evangelical  churches  w^e  treat  as  in 
all  respects  true  members  and  ministers 
equally  with  ourselves  of  the  Church  of 
Christ. 

While  several  of  these  churches  decline 
giving  letters  of  dismission  from  their  own 
to  other  communions,  we  make  no  distinc- 
tion. We  dismiss  members  to  Baptist, 
Episcopal,  or  other  Christian  congrega- 
tions, in  precisely  the  same  form,  and  with 
the  same  affectionate  confidence,  as  though 
we  were  transferring  them  to  churches  of 
our  own  name. 

«  ••Confession  of  Faith",  Chap.  XXVI,  sec.  :?. 
191 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

Some  evangelical  denominations  deny 
the  validity  of  ordinances  performed  by  sis- 
ter churches,  and  when  a  minister  or  a 
member  would  come  to  them  from  a  sister 
denomination,  the  one  must  be  re-ordained, 
the  other  re-baptized.  Such  denial  is  ut- 
terly contrary  to  the  Presbyterian  spirit 
and  )isage.  We  never  repeat  the  rite.  The 
ordinance  of  a  sister  church  we  accept  as 
no  less  valid  than  if  performed  by  ourselves. 

While  from  many  evangelical  pulpits  the 
ministers  of  sister  churches  are  shut  out,  or 
from  co-of¥iciation  in  sacred  ceremonies, 
such  exclusion  is  never  practiced  by  us.  It 
is  alien  to  che  Presbyterian  heart  and  habit. 
We  are  as  free  and  cordial  in  asking  Epis- 
copal, Baptist,  or  other  evangelical  minis- 
ters, to  occupy  our  pulpits,  or  assist  us 
officially  in  administering  the  Lord's 
Supper,  as  in  asking  our  own  pastors. 

We  unchurch  no  true  Christian.  We  re- 
ject no  ministerial  ordination.  We  repu- 
diate no  administered  scriptural  sacrament 
of  a  sister  church.  Returning  good  for 
192 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

evil,  we  recognize  our  high-church  fellow 
clergyman  as  a  true  minister  of  Christ,  and 
our  immersionist  brother  as  having  been 
validly  baptized.  We  respond  with  all  our 
hearts  to  the  "  Amen  "  of  the  Methodists; 
we  join  with  our  brethren  in  any  psalmody 
that  puts  the  crown  upon  the  brow  of 
Jesus;  and  most  lovingly  do  we  invite  our 
fellow  Christians  of  every  name  and  denom- 
ination to  partake  with  us  of  the  emblems 
of  His  broken  body  and  His  shed  blood. 
We  have  no  prejudice,  no  peculiarity,  no 
crotchet  of  any  kind,  to  restrict  our  Chris- 
tian sympathies  and  dig  a  chasm  between 
us  and  other  servants  of  our  Master.  Our 
catholicity  is  wide  as  evangelical  Christen- 
dom. When  the  day  of  union  dawns  upon 
the  militant  forces  of  our  common  Lord, 
and  His  prayer  is  answered  "  that  tiiey  all 
may  be  one  ",  it  will  be  largely  due  under 
God  to  the  teaching  and  the  example  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church. 

The   catholic  breadth  of  her   Christian 
sympathy  is  seen   in  her  liberal   support 
193 


THE  CREED   CATHOLIC 

Support  of  of  interdenominational  and  undenomina- 
InsHiutionl.  tional  religious  enterprises  and  institutions 
of  all  kinds.  Wherever  the  common  cause 
of  Christ  calls  for  the  sacrifice  of  sectarian 
interests  and  the  submergence  of  sectarian 
diiTerences,  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  ever 
first  to  respond,  with  greatest  gifts  and 
largest  labors.  She  stands  with  hand  out- 
stretched and  purse  open  for  every  needy 
worthy  cause  that  bears  the  name  of  Chris- 
tian. Her  members  have  been  called 
"  God's  silly  people  "  from  the  self-forget- 
ful generosity  with  which  they  have  lav- 
ished the  time  and  means  often  sorely 
needed  by  their  own  church  upon  those 
great  outside  enterprises  whose  sole  claim 
is  the  common  Christian  good  and  whose 
sole  appeal  is  to  the  catholic  Christian 
heart.  The  statement  of  D.  L.  Moody  is 
well  known,  that  if  he  needed  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  some  worthy  unde- 
nominational religious  enterprise,  he  would 
naturally  expect  to  secure  eighty  thousand 
of  it  from  the  Presbyterians.  In  the  great 
194 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

interdenominational  societies  and  associa- 
tions, and  in  those  private  or  public  chari- 
ties sustained  by  the  gifts  of  good  people  of 
all  Christian  names,  figures  show  that  Pres- 
byterians usually  do  and  give  not  only  more 
than  any  other  denomination,  but  often 
more  than  all  the  others  combined. 

In   a   western    city   the    Young    Men's  vormg  Men's 
Christian  Association  was  seeking  funds  to  Christian 

.      ..  ..  .  f.  .  .  Association. 

secure  a  new  buildmg.  After  sixty  thou- 
sand dollars  had  been  given  by  one  Presby- 
terian, a  general  committee  of  one  hundred 
was  appointed,  representing  all  denomina- 
tions. That  number  proving  too  large  for 
effective  work,  a  special  canvassing  com- 
mittee of  five  was  selected,  taken  from  the 
leading  business  men,  and  limited  to  those 
who  would  contribute  at  least  five  thou- 
sand dollars.  Four  of  these  so  appointed 
were  found  to  be  Presbyterian  elders. 
The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
Secretary  said  that  this  was  about  the  pro- 
portion in  other  cities.^ 

*  Hays'  "  Presbyterians",  p.  354. 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

American  The  American  Bible  Society  is  one  of  the 

^'^'^■^' noblest  unsectarian  institutions  in  the 
world.  Its  beneficent  work  eternity  alone 
can  measure  and  reveal.  Dr.  S.  Irenseus 
Prime,  the  genial  and  famous  author  and 
editor,  was  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
Society.  A  few  years  before  his  death  he 
made  a  careful  examination  of  the  receipts 
of  the  New  York  City  Bible  Auxiliary.  He 
found  that  for  the  preceding  fifty  years  the 
contributions  to  the  Society  from  the  Pres- 
byterian churches  were  five  times  greater 
than  the  sum  total  from  all  the  other 
churches  combined,  and  for  the  preceding 
seven  years  were  six  times  greater.  Dr. 
Prime  adds  that  ''  an  analysis  of  the  sources 
of  contributions  to  the  Bible  cause  in  any 
other  city  or  part  of  the  country,  out  of 
New  England,  will  show  that  the  Presby- 
terian Church  contributes  to  this  great  na- 
tional Society  in  about  the  same  propor- 
tion." 5 

The  American  Bible  Society,  the  Amer- 

'  "  First  General  Presbyterian  Council  ",  p.  70. 
196 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 


ican  Tract  Society,  and  the  American  Sun-  American 
day  School  Union  are  our  three  national  ^^'y-J^'l^^^^y 
religious  enterprises,  the  importance  of  Unioji, 
whose  work,  and  the  utterly  unsectarian 
character  of  whose  management  and  aims, 
commend  them  equally  to  all  Christians. 
One  of  the  leading  executive  officers  of  one 
of  these  Societies,  himself  not  a  Presbyte- 
rian, said  that  if  the  Presbyterian  Church 
should  withdraw  its  contributions  and  co- 
operation from  any  or  all  of  these  Societies, 
their  great  work  would  thereby  be  ended.^' 
The  above  facts  and  figures  illustrate  the 
nobly  practical  nature  of  the  catholicity  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church.  She  issues  no 
formal  declarations  concerning  unity, 

"  For  love  hath  better  deeds  than  words  to  grace  it." 

She  simply  practices  that  catholic  Christian 
bigheartedness  which  her  Bible  and  her 
Standards  teach. 

Her  catholic  spirit  of  love  finds  beautiful  CathoUcphii 
expression    in    the    administration    of    her  "^"^  ^^^^' 
magnificent  philanthropies.    In  the  North- 

*  Hays'  *'  Presbyterians",  p.  353. 
197 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

ern  Presbyterian  Church  alone  there  are 
more  than  a  dozen  Presbyterian  Hospitals, 
Homes,  Orphanages,  and  the  like,  for  the 
care  of  the  needy  and  the  relief  of  the  suf- 
fering. They  are  completely  equipped,  and 
the  inmates  of  the  hospitals  enjoy  the  bene- 
fits of  the  highest  medical  skill  and  the  best 
attendance  which  money  can  command. 
These  noble  institutions  represent  an  out- 
lay of  millions  on  millions  of  Presbyterian 
money,  but  they  are  Presbyterian  only  in 
their  support  and  management,  not  in  the 
objects  which  they  seek  to  relieve.  Their 
arms  are  stretched  forth  to  receive  and 
bless  all,  without  regard  to  name  or  creed. 
In  one  of  these  hospitals,  seventy-four  in 
every  hundred  of  the  inmates  came  from 
the  Methodists,  the  Catholics,  and  the 
Lutherans,  while  only  eight  were  Presby- 
terians. The  Jews,  Unitarians,  and  Friends 
helped  to  make  up  the  rest.*^ 

The    catholicity    of    the     Presbyterian 
Church  appears  in  her  one   condition  of 

'  Hays'  "  Presbyterians  ",  p.  352. 
198 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

church  membership.    She  demands  nothing  On^  condi- 
whatever  for  admission  to  her  fold  except  ^^'^  "f 

church  mem- 

a  confession,  uncontradicted  by  the  hfe,  of  tership. 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  appli- 
cant is  not  asked  to  subscribe  to  our 
Standards  or  assent  to  our  theology.  He  is 
not  required  to  be  a  Calvinist,  but  only  to 
be  a  Christian.  He  is  not  examined  as  to 
his  orthodoxy,  but  only  as  to  his  ''  faith  in 
and  obedience  unto  Christ."  ^  He  may 
have  imperfect  notions  about  the  Trinity 
and  the  Atonement;  he  may  question  in- 
fant baptism,  election,  and  final  persever- 
ance; but  if  he  trusts  and  obeys  Christ  as 
his  personal  Saviour  and  Lord,  the  door  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  is  open  to  him, 
and  all  the  privileges  of  her  communion  are 
his. 

When  churches  prescribe  conditions  of 
membership  other  than  the  simple  condi- 
tions of  salvation,  they  are  guilty  of  the  un- 
scriptural  incongruity  of  making  it  harder 
to  get  into  the  Church  than  into  Heaven. 

3  ••  Confession  of  Faith  ",  Chap.  XXVIII,  sec.  4. 
199 


THE  CREED   CATHOLIC 

To  such  ecclesiastical  tyranny  and  exclu- 
siveness  the  Presbyterian  Church  stands  in 
utter  contrast.  Her  Standards  declare  that 
as  simple  faith  in  Christ  makes  us  members 
of  God's  family,^  so  ''  those  who  have  made 
a  profession  of  faith  in  Christ  are  entitled 
to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
Church."  ^^  Thus  with  a  broad  and  beau- 
tiful catholicity  the  gates  of  our  Presbyte- 
rian Zion  are  flung  wide  as  the  gates  of 
Heaven  for  all  the  children  of  God. 
Magnifies  The  Presbyterian  Church  is  catholic  in 

'  its  embrace  and  emphasis  of  those  great 
essentials  of  the  Christian  religion  which 
form  the  common  faith  of  evangelical 
Christendom.  The  central  facts  of  redemp- 
tion, which  are  at  once  the  heart  and  the 
life  of  the  Christian  system,  to  wit,  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  very  God  and  very  man,  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  the  one  only  power 
unto  salvation  from  sin  and  endless  death 

'  "  Ye  are  all  the  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ."     Gal.  3  :  26. 

"  ••  Book  of  Church  Order",  Chap.  Ill,  sec.  3. 
200 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

by  atoning  expiatory  sacrifice,  through 
faith  alone,  these,  with  the  other  fundamen- 
tal doctrines  beheved  by  all  Christian  com- 
munions throughout  the  world,  are  held  by 
the  Presbyterian  Church  with  a  grasp  that 
none  can  loosen  and  preached  with  a  power 
that  none  can  dispute.  In  her  Standards 
and  her  pulpits  they  receive,  as  they  de- 
serve, the  supreme  emphasis  and  honor. 

Even  those  articles  of  her  creed  which  The  Presby 
some  suppose  distinctive  are  more  catholic  ^'"'''^'^"/'^ 
than  denominational.    In  her  practice  of  in-  ,reed. 
fant  baptism  she  is  in  harmony  with  nine 
tenths  of  Christendom.     In  her  mode  of 
baptism  she  stands  again  with  the  over- 
whelming  majority   of   Christendom.      In 
her   doctrine   of    election,    predestination, 
and  final  perseverance  she  is  in  line  with  the 
majority  of  the  historic  creeds  of  the  evan- 
gelical world.    It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say 
that  if,  from  aU  the  authoritative  articles  of 
belief  of  the  various  churches,  one  were  to 
make  a  choice,  selecting  only  such  beliefs 
as  are  held  by  the  whole  or  the  largest 

20I 


THE   CRE£D   CATHOLIC 

part  of  evangelical  Christendom,  the  elect 
and  catholic  creed  so  formed  would  corre- 
spond, almost  doctrine  for  doctrine,  with  the 
creed  of  Presbyterians. 

Says  Dr.  Charles  A.  Briggs:  ''  Presby- 
terianism  is  pre-eminently  Christian."  ^^ 
"  The  Presbyterian  Church  has  the  true 
apostolic  succession  in  striving  after  the 
apostolic  faith  in  its  purity,  integrity,  and 
fulness."  ^^  "  Presbyterianism  is  a  real 
Christianity  which  rejects  everything  that 
is  not  a  product  of  the  Christianity  of 
Jesus  Christ.  It  appropriates  everything 
in  every  age  of  the  Church  which  bears 
the  impress  of  Christ  and  which  repre- 
sents the  power  of  His  Spirit."  ^^  ''  The 
Presbyterian  churches  adhere  to  all  the 
doctrinal  achievements  of  the  ancient 
church — the  catholic  doctrines  of  the 
Trinity,    the    Person    of    Christ,    and    the 

"  "AmericaQ  Presbyterianism",  p.  5. 
"  Id.,  p.  8. 
"Id.,  p,  XI. 

202 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

office  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  do  not 
adopt  the  peculiarities  of  the  Greek  or  the 
Roman  or  any  other  branch  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  whether  in  doctrine  or  prac- 
tice; for  these  peculiarities  are  not  cath- 
olic. Presbyterianism  is  truest  to  catholic- 
ity in  that  it  insists  upon  those  things 
which  are  truly  catholic,  and  declines  to 
mingle  with  them  those  things  which  are 
not  catholic."  ^* 

''Presbyterianism",   declares   the   ssime  "  TAe  genu- 
writer,  "  belongs  to  the  modern  age  of  the  '"^  ^.^'''''     , 

^  ^  tiant^y  of  all 

world,  but  it  is  not  a  departure  from  the  agesr 
Christianity  of  the  ancient  and  mediaeval 
church.  It  is  rather  the  culmination  of  the 
development  of  Christianity  from  the  times 
of  the  apostles  until  the  present  day.  It 
comprehends  the  genuine  Christianity  of  all 
ages.  It  conserves  all  the  achievements  of 
the  Christian  Church.  It  leads  the  van  of 
the   advancing   host    of    God.      It    makes 

"  "  American  Presbyterianism",  p.  12. 
203 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

steady  progress  towards  the  realization  of 
the  ideal  of  Christianity  in  the  golden  age 
of  the  Messiah."  ^^ 
Libcraiin  The    stress    laid    by    the    Presbyterian 

"tiaiT^^^'  Church  upon  the  essentials  of  religion  is  the 
secret  of  her  liberality  in  non-essentials. 
The  vestments  of  the  minister,  the  attitude 
of  the  worshipper,  the  precise  order  and 
form  of  worship,  and  the  like,  she  leaves  to 
the  Christian  common  sense  of  the  individ- 
ual church.  Regarding  such  matters  she 
may  advise  or  recommend.  She  never  leg- 
islates. She  is  ever  mindful  of  her  Lord's 
prayer, ''  Sanctify  them  through  Thy  truth  ". 
An  exaggerated  illustration  of  the  Presby- 
terian indifference  to  things  about  which 
we  have  no  commandment  from  the  Lord 
is  the  exclamation  of  a  noble  old  Scotch 
elder  when  bounded  on  the  burning  ques- 
tion whether  or  not  his  minister  should 
wear  a  gown:  "  Let  him  attend  to  his  own 
wardrobe;    he    may    preach    in    his    shirt- 

**  "  American  Presbyterianism  ",  p.  5. 
204 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

sleeves  for  aught  I  care,  if  he  only  preaches 
sound  doctrine." 

Our  Presbyterian  polity,  or  form  oiotir  polity 
church  government,  whence  comes  the  de-  '''^^P^^'''^^' 
nominational  name  we  bear,^^  is  derived 
from  Scripture.  The  famous  Anglican 
scholar  and  prelate.  Bishop  Lightfoot,  can- 
didly declares:  "  It  is  a  fact  now  generally 
recognized  by  theologians  of  all  shades  of 
opinion  that,  in  the  language  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  same  officer  in  the  church 
is  called  indifferently  bishop  or  elder  or 
presbyter."  '^'^  Says  Prof.  Heron  of  Bel- 
fast: "  It  is  a  simple  historical  fact,  of  deep 
significance,  that  wherever  the  Reforma- 
tion had  free  course,  wherever  it  was  per- 
mitted to  shape  itself  spontaneously  after 
Scripture,  and  without  external  interfer- 
ence, it  assumed  a  Presbyterian  form." 
Among  the  young  Protestant  Churches  of 
native  growth  to-day,  which  are  struggling 

^^  We  are  Presbyterians,  because  our  churches  are 
governed  by  presbyters  (or  elders  or  bishops).  Every 
elder  is  a  bishop  according  to  the  New  Testament. 

"  Com.  on  Philipplans. 

205 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

into  life  amid  the  Romanism  of  Southern 
Europe,  the  Mohammedanism  of  Western 
Asia,  the  superstitions  of  Brazil,  or  the 
heathenism  of  Japan,  the  same  tendency  is 
seen,  the  same  process  is  going  on.^^  As 
soon  as  the  initial  stage  of  Congregation- 
alism is  outgrown,  there  begins  the  group- 
ing into  Presbyteries,  the  natural  and  scrip- 
tural flowering  into  the  complete  Presbyte- 
rian form. 

Unequalled.  That  the  Presbyterian  is  the  best  church 
polity,  as  the  London  Spectator  unhesi- 
tatingly affirms,  would  appear  not  only 
from  its  scriptural  origin,  but  also  from  the 
fact  that  its  principles  of  popular  repre- 
sentative government  have  been  adopted 
by  all  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the 
earth. 

Growingiy  While  the  scripturalness  and  excellence 
of  our  ecclesiastical  polity  are  familiar 
themes,  few  properly  recognize  its  grow- 
ingiy cathohc  and  universal  character. 
The  Presbyterian  polity  is  rapidly  leaven- 

*®  Ogilvie's  "The  Presbyterian  Churches",  p.  158- 
206 


universal. 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

ing  all  the  Protestant  churches.  It  is  work- 
ing visibly  in  every  sister  denomination. 
Only  the  repressing  hand  of  the  State  in 
Germany  to-day  prevents  the  Lutheran 
Church  from  adopting  a  Presbyterian  con- 
stitution. The  Lutherans  of  America  have 
adopted  synodical  government  as  the  best 
suited  to  their  needs,  and  have  associated 
the  representatives  of  the  people  with  their 
pastors  in  their  local  and  national  councils. 
The  earlier  Anglican  prelacy  has  given  way 
in  America  to  a  distinctly  Presbyterian 
type  of  Episcopal  government.  The  Eng- 
lish Episcopal  Church  has  adopted  synod- 
ical rule  in  all  her  colonial  branches,  where 
in  her  synods  layman  and  cleric  meet  to- 
gether with  the  Bishop  as  permanent  Mod- 
erator.^^ The  Methodists  have  been 
obliged  to  modify  their  clerical  government 
by  the  admission  of  lay  members  to  their 
conferences.  Modern  Congregationalism 
is  a  manifest  compromise  between  the  In- 
dependent and  the  Presbyterian  way.  Even 

**Ogilvie,  p.  i6i. 

207 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

the  Baptists,  who  have  been  the  stanch- 
est  representatives  of  Independency,  have 
come  to  intrust  the  real  management  of  de- 
nominational affairs  to  local  and  national 
associations,  the  former  treating  churches 
which  v^alk  disorderly  as  liable  to  the  disci- 
pline of  exclusion  from  the  association.^^ 

The  above  are  some  of  the  approxima- 
tions on  the  part  of  the  sister  Protestant 
churches  to  methods  formerly  peculiar  to 
Presbyterianism.  The  able  author  of  the 
sixth  volume  of  "American  Church  His- 
tory ''  states  that  "  As  a  whole  the  Protes- 
tantism of  America  has  become  Presbyte- 
rian in  substance,  though  not  in  name."  ^i 
When  comes  that  day  for  which  many  are 
longing  and  praying,  when  the  churches 
of  Protestant  Christendom  shall  abandon 
their  isolation  and  unite  in  one  mighty 
Evangelical  Federation,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  its  form,  and  the  chief  factor  in 
its  formation,  will  alike  be  Presbyterian. 

'"  "American  Church  History",  vol.  vi.  p^  285. 
21  Id.,  p.  285. 

208 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

The  catholic  and  ecumenical  character  of  ^'umber  #/ 
Presbyterianism  is  proved  and  pictured  {xi'"'^''''''^^'' 
the  numerical  vastness  of  her  constituency. 
Her  adherents  are  variously  estimated  at 
from  twenty-five  to  forty  millions.^^  Rev. 
W.  W.  Moore,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  says:  "The 
Presbyterian  Church  is  the  largest  Protes- 
tant church  in  the  world  to-day."  Rev.  R. 
P.  Kerr,  D.D.,  the  historian  of  Presbyte- 
rianism, pronounces  it  "  by  far  the  largest 
Protestant  church  on  the  globe  ".  Rev. 
Moses  D.  Hoge,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  nomen 
clarum  et  venerabile,  said  from  his  pulpit: 
''The  largest  Protestant  family  in  the 
world  is  the  Presbyterian." 

It  is  inspiring  to  remind  ourselves  \hdifBeyefo, 
ours  is   a   historic   church.      Our   present  ^'"^^''•' ''■^ 

....  1  •    ,  them  who 

millions  are  the  children  and  successors  of  through 
millions  upon  millions  more,  seated  now  in  f^^^^  ^^'^ 
the  galleries  of ''  History's  vast  Coliseum  '^  ;,ltr/''" 

22  Dr.  W.  H.  Roberts'  estimate  is   twenty-five   m\\-P^°"^i^^5" 
lions,  Dr.  J.  N.  Ogilvie's  twenty-eight  millions,  Dr. 
W.  A.  Campbell  s  thirty-one  millions.  Dr.  James  Mc- 
Cosh's  thirty-four  millions,  Dr.  R.  P.  Kerr's  thirty- 
five  millions,  Dr.  W.  P.  Breed's  forty  millions. 
209 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

tier  above  tier,  generation  upon  genera- 
tion, of  those  who  through  ages  of  toil, 
trial,  and  triumph,  "  subdued  kingdoms, 
wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises, 
stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the 
violence  of  fire,  out  of  weakness  were  made 
strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight,  turned  to 
flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens  ".  When  we 
remember  that  as  Presbyterians  we  stand 
on  soil  drenched  with  the  blood,  baptized 
with  the  tears,  and  eloquent  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  saints  and  heroes  in  number  with- 
out number,  surely  our  hearts  should  cry 
out,  in  language  sacred  as  familiar:  "  We 
cannot  dedicate,  zve  cannot  consecrate,  zve 
cannot  hallow  this  ground.  The  brave  men 
who  struggled  here  have  consecrated  it  far 
above  our  power  to  add  or  detract.  It  is 
for  us  the  living  rather  to  be  dedicated  here 
to  their  unfinished  work."  "  In  the  mem- 
ory of  their  mighty  acts  ",  says  Dr.  W.  M. 
Paxton,  "  we  should  train  our  children. 
The  historian  Sallust  tells  us  that  the  Ro- 
man mothers  trained  their  children  in  the 

2IO 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

presence  of  the  busts  and  statues  of  their 
ancestors.  In  Hke  manner  we  should  train 
our  children  and  our  rising  ministry,  as  it 
were,  in  the  presence  of  their  forefathers,  in 
all  the  memories  of  our  past  history,  and 
urge  them,  as  the  Roman  mothers  did, 
never  to  be  satisfied  whilst  the  virtues  and 
victories  of  the  past  were  more  numerous 
or  more  glorious  than  those  of  the  pres- 
ent." 

More  catholic  and  imposing  even  than  Worldwide 
the  Presbyterian  numbers  is  the  worldwide  ^"^P^''^- 
range  of  the  Presbyterian  empire.  While 
the  adherents  of  other  Protestant  com- 
munions are  more  or  less  massed  in  single 
countries,  the  Lutherans  in  Germany,  the 
Episcopalians  in  England,  the  Methodists 
and  Baptists  in  the  United  States,  the  line 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  gone  out 
through  all  the  earth.  She  thrives  this  hour 
in  more  continents,  among  a  greater  num- 
ber of  nations  and  peoples  and  languages, 
than  any  other  evangelical  church  in  the 
world.    As  her  witnesses  in  continental  Eu- 

211 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

rope,  she  has  the  historic  Presbyterian  Re- 
formed churches  of  Austria,  Bohemia, 
GaHcia,  Moravia,  of  Hungary,  Belgium, 
France,  Germany,  of  Italy,  Greece,  the 
Netherlands,  of  Russia  and  Switzerland  and 
Spain.  She  is  rooted  and  fruitful  in  Africa, 
in  Australia,  in  Asia,  in  Great  Britain,  in 
North  America,  in  South  America,  in  the 
West  Indies,  in  New  Zealand,  in  Malane- 
sia, — the  people  of  this  faith  and  order  gird 
the  earth.  Presbyterianism  possesses  a 
power  of  adaptation  unparalleled  by  any 
other  system.  It  holds  in  steadfast  array  a 
great  part  of  the  intelligence  and  moral 
vigor  of  the  Christian  world,  and  from  its 
abounding  spiritual  life  are  going  forth  the 
mighty  forces  of  Christian  missions  into  all 
the  heathen  world. 
Go  ye  into  On  every  continent,  on  the  islands  of  the 
sea,  on  the  soil  of  every  non-Christian  faith, 
Presbyterianism  has  planted  her  standards. 
Eager  to  break  the  bread  of  life  to  the  per- 
ishing, and  reveal  to  the  restless  darkened 
millions     ''  that     Light     whose     dawning 

212 


all  the 
xvorld. 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

maketh  all  things  new  ",  she  has  gone  out, 
as  her  Master  bade,  through  the  lands  near 
at  hand,  on  and  on,  unto  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth. 

No   other  church  in  America  has   ex-  Missionary 
tended  its  banners  and  flung  out  its  line  of  ''ssresst-^f 
battle  as  the  American  Presbyterian  Church  XI?Wc«;/ 
has  done.^^      In  this  respect  at  least  t\\^  Presbytenur 
belief  of  Dr.  C.  A.  Briggs  seems  justified,  ^^"^' 
that  '*  American  Presbyterianism  is  in  ad- 
vance of  all  other  Christian  denominations 
in  the  realization  of  the  ideal  of  Christi- 
anity." ^*     The  missionary  heralds  of  our 
Pan-American  Presbyterianism  alone,  which 
is  but  a  branch  of  the  Catholic  Presbyterian 
Church,  are  scattered  from  British  Colum- 
bia to  Yucatan;  they  are  in  Central  Amer- 
ica, and  in  Colombia,  Venezuela,   British 
Guiana,  and  Brazil;  they  are  on  the  African 
coast  from  Liberia  to  the  Ogowe,  and  in 
the  heart  of  the  great  Congo  Basin;  they 
are  strong  in  Syria  and  Persia,  and  side  by 

'^  Robt.  E.  Speer. 

^^•' American  Presbyterianism",  p.  xiii. 
213 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

side  in  India  our  separate  columns  are  ad- 
vancing under  one  Captain;  we  are  pro- 
claiming glad  tidings  in  Siam  and  Laos,  in 
Hainan  and  the  Philippines,  in  Cuba  and 
Formosa;  we  have  long  since  "  partitioned 
China  ",  not  for  political  spoil,  but  for  her 
own  salvation;  our  united  forces  are  teach- 
ing the  Hermit  Nation  that  as  no  man,  so 
no  nation,  liveth  to  itself;  we  have  pro- 
claimed to  the  Sunrise  Kingdom  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness,  whose  rising  shall  know  no 
setting.  Our  strategic  points  are  taken, 
our  stations  occupied,  our  watch-towers 
girdle  the  globe.^^ 
The  outlook.  With  a  past  rich  in  glorious  achievement 
and  a  present  marked  by  worldwide  ex- 
tension and  triumphing  missionary .  en- 
thusiasm, the  future  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  is  radiant  with  promise.  Who  can 
doubt  that  through  historic  development, 
through  centuries  of  special  experience, 
through  stern  battles  w^ith  relentless  ene- 

**  Report  of  Com.  on  For.  Missions,  Western  Sec- 
tion, to  Seventh  General  Council. 
214. 


THE   CREED   CATHOLIC 

mies  as  well  as  through  the  silent  sweeter 
nurture  of  His  love,  God  has  constituted 
our  Presbyterianism  one  of  His  elect 
agencies  in  the  fulfilment  of  that  gracious 
Purpose  which  includes  not  ourselves  only,, 
but  the  whole  world?  May  He  thrill  us 
with  the  consciousness  of  our  Divine  com^ 
mission  and  endowment.  May  He  give  us 
grace,  with  an  humble  reliance  on  His  en- 
abling Spirit,  to  do  our  part  in  that  great 
and  blessed  work,  whose  aim  is  the  uni- 
versal enthronement  of  our  common  L^rd, 
and  whose  end  is  nothing  less  than  the  re- 
generation of  humanity. 

215 


INDEX 


Alva,  70 

America,  Calvin  and  founding 
of,    119,   132-136;     Calvinism 
and  colonial  elements  of.  120 ; 
Calvinism      and      republican 
principles  of,    121,    122,    126- 
130;    Calvinism   the    training 
school  of,    120,  137;    national 
constitution      modelled      after 
Presbyterian,    140-142;    sum- 
mary of  Calvinism's  contribu- 
tions to,  142 ;  the  Revolution  a 
Presbyterian     measure,     143- 
148;    worK   and    infiuence   of 
Pres.  Church  in,  148-152 
American  Bible  Society,  196 
American  S.  S.  Union,  197 
American  Tract  Soc,  197 
Anglo-Saxondom,  its  Protestant- 
ism due  to  Puritans,  72 ;  Cal- 
vin's influence  upon,  131 
Apostolic  Succession,  202 
Aristotle,  33 
Arminianism,  92,  94,  183,  184, 

186 
Arnold,  Matthew,  cited,  94,  183 
Arnold,  Thomas,  cited,  15 
Assembly,  see   General  Ass.,  or 

Westminster  Ass. 
Attila,  180 
Augustine,  13,  87 

Bacon,  Francis,  16,  33 


Bacon,    Dr.    Leonard  Woolsey 

cited,  120 
Baldwin,  Prof.,  cited,  151 
Bancroft,  cited,   72,  78,  81,  82, 

90,  91,  96,  121,  122,  127,  129, 

130,  136,  143,  144 
Baptism,  not  repeated,   192;  in 

fant,  201;  mode,  201 
Baptist    approximation  to  Pres- 

byterianism,  208 
Baptist  Association,  cited,  36 
Baxter.  17;  cited,  18 
Bayard,  Ambassador,  cited,    152 
Bayne,  Peter,  cited,  64 
Beecher,  H.  W.,  cited,  47,  62 
Benevolence,  150 
Bible-readings,  no 
Bishop,  in  New  Test,  usage,  205 
Book  of  Ch.  Order,  cited,  190 
Bowen,  Dr.  L.  P.,  cited,  6i 
Breed,  Dr.  W.  P.,  cited,  146,  209 
Briggs,  Dr.  C.  A.,  cited,  31,  202, 

203,  213 
Bruce,  Robert,  160 
Buckle,  cited,  92,   98,  102,  12 1, 

183,  185 
Bunker  Hill,  135 
Bunyan,  17,  59 

Calvin,  not  onginator  of  Cal- 
vinism, 12;  C.  and  Pres.  creed, 
13;  and  Catechisms,  25;  and 
Scripture,    33;  and   God,  47; 


217 


INDEX 


and  martyrs,  55,  126;  and 
Eng.  Puritans,  71;  debt  of 
mankind  to,  71,  130;  C.  and 
Augustine,  87 ;  and  St.  Cyran, 
88;  and  free  inquiry,  91; 
and  popular  education,  96, 
148;  and  Knox,  98,  130;  and 
Luther,  100,  135;  and  America, 
119,  132-136;  and  popular 
government,  128-130;  influ- 
ence of,  131 
Calvinism,  assailed,  preface, 
Ji;  inadequately  represented 
by  the  Five  Points,  preface;  is 
it  dead  ?  preface  ;  hated  by 
heresy,  ii;  Pres.  Church  its 
chief  representative,  12;  ori- 
gin of  name,  12;  Bible  its 
sole  standard  of  doctrine, 
33;  true  secret  of  unpopularity, 
35 ;  C.  and  revision  of  Confes- 
sion, 37,  38;  tested  by  its 
fruits,  43-153;  Keynote  of,  44; 
C.  and  God,  44;  and  duty,  45; 
program  of,  46;  C.  and  sin,  48; 
and  grace,  49;  array  of  mar- 
tyrs. 54;  heroic  moral  energy, 
55-58;  appeals  to  facts,  57; 
type  of  character,  59,  61 ;  cre- 
ated English  Puritanism,  63- 
74 ;  saved  the  Reformation,  72 ; 
created  modern  Christian  civil- 
ization, 74;  C.  and  art,  81 ; 
and  religious  toleration,  81; 
and  persecution,  81 ;  in  Hoi- 
land,  75-83;  in  France,  83-88 ; 
at  Port  Royal,  87,  88;  in  New- 
England,  89,  90;  C.  and  free 
inquiry,  91;  intellectual  supe- 
riority, 92;  how  explained,  93; 
most  satisfying  and  stimulat- 
ing, 94;  "lofty,"  9S;  C.  and 


education,    96,    97,     148;    in 

Scotland,  98-103 ;  C.  and  mis- 
sions, 100,  10 1 ;  in  home  life, 
106-116;  in  America,  119- 
153;  C.  and  revolutionary  fore- 
fathers, 120 ;  C.  and  human 
rights,  121;  a  democratic  relig- 
ion, 121,  122;  C.  and  liberty, 
123-126,  132-137;  C.'s  coro- 
nation of  individual  man  as 
sovereign,  128,  129;  opened 
new  era,  129;  school  of  self- 
government,  137;  summary  of 
contributions  to  American 
Republic,  142 ;  C.  and  revivals, 
150;  illustrated  in  Predestina- 
tion and  Providence,  157-182; 
confirmed  by  Science  and  phi- 
losophy, 182-186;  catholicity 
of,  189-215 
Campbell,  W.  A.,  cited,  209 
Caricature,  favorite  anti-Calvin- 

istic  weapon,  60 
Campbell,  Douglas,  cited,  75,  77, 

78,  79,  80 
Campbell,  W.  A.,  cited,  209 
Carlyle,  cited,  45,  47,  63,  97,  99 
Castelar,  cited,  135 
Catechisms,     Westminster     (see 
Shorter,   Larger),  creed   com- 
plete  in  each,   13;     predomi- 
nantly ethical,  21;  their  exposi- 
tion of  Decalogue,  22;    labor 
bestowed    upon,    24-27;     vs. 
other  catechisms,  27;  no  revi- 
sion of  proposed,  39 
Catechizing,  benefits  of,  1 10 
Catholicity,   of  Presbyterian- 
ism,  shown  in  Standards,  190; 
in    fraternal     recognition    of 
other  churches,    191- 193;    in 
support  of  unsectarian  insti- 

18 


INDEX 


tutions,  193-197;  ii)  philan- 
thropy, 198;  in  condition  of 
membership,  199;  in  embrace 
and  emphasis  of  Christian  es- 
sentials, 200-203;  in  liberality 
in  non-essentials,  204;  ingrow- 
ing Presbyterianization  of  Prot- 
estant Christendom,  206-208; 
in  number  of  adherents,  209; 
in  v/orldwide  distribution,  211, 
212. 

Choate,  Rufus,  cited,  134 

Church-going,  108 

Coligny,  59. 

Collier,  cited,  15 

Common-school  system,  Calvin 
inventor  of,  96,  148. 

Communion  of  saints,  190 

Confession  of  Faith,  subscrip- 
tion to,  14;  ethical  quality,  21 ; 
evangelical  richness,  22;  labor 
bestowed  upon,  27  ;  revision 
of,  37-39;  teaching  concerning 
infants  dying  in  infancy,  39; 
catholic  spirit  of,  190  ;  cited, 
32,  45,  160,  168,  174,  176,  178, 
190,  191,  199 

Congregationalism,  206;  approx- 
imation to  Presbyterianism, 
207 

Constitution  of  U.  S.  its  model, 
142 

Covenanters,  86,  143 

Cowpens,  battle  of,  147 

Curry,  Dr.,  cited,  19,  92 

Creed,  purpose  and  ftmction,  21, 

23 
Cromwell,  17,  59,  66 
Cyclopedia,  Universal,  cited,  75 
Cyran,  St.,  88 


D'Aubigne,  cited,  loi,  132 


Descartes,  33 

De  Tocqueville,  cited,  121 

Doyle,  J.  A.,  cited,  121 

Dutch  Calvinists,  see  Holland,. 

Duty  and  Calvinism,  45,  100 

Dyer,  cited,  71 

Eaton,  Gen.  John,  cited,  149 

Education,  96,  97,  148 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  135 

Eldership,  Presbyterian,  138, 147, 
195,  205 

Election  and  grace,  practical 
effects  of,  56.  122-124 

Elliott,  cited,  148 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  cited,  93 

Encyclopedia  Britannica,  cited, 
62,83 

England,  Calvinism  in,  20,  59, 
63-74  ;  liberties  of,  won  by 
Calvinists,  125,  134 

Episcopal,  Protestant,  approxi- 
mation to  Presbyterianism,  207 

Family,  the,  and  Presoyterian- 
ism,  149 

Family  Religion,  the  family 
altar,  107;  religious  conversa- 
tion, 109  ;  Scripture  and  cate- 
chism, iio;  happy  Sabbath- 
keeping,  108- II 2  ;  parental 
discipline,  112;  the  home  Sanc- 
tuary, 114 

Fatalism  and  foreordination,  166, 
180 

Fisher,  Prof,  Geo.  F.,  cited,  33, 
44,  102 

Fiske,  Prof.  John,  cited,  46,  71, 

125,  137 
Foreordination  and  fatalism,  166, 

and     free -agency,     167-173; 

illustrated,  161-175 
France,  Calvinism  in,  83-88 


210 


INDEX 


Free-agency  and  foreordination 
illustrated,  167-172;  both  to 
be  believed,  172,  173 

Froude,  cited,  43,  57,  58,  59,  60, 

72,  99,  125,  183 

General  Assembly,  Southern, 
cited,  15 ;  Northern  on  revision 
of  Confession,  37,  38;  Southern 
and  revision,  38;  Archbishop 
Hughes  on,  139 
Geneva,  55,  130,  131,  135,  136 
German  Reformed  Church,   I20, 

212 
Gibbon,  58 
Gillespie,  George,  29 
Gladstone,  cited,  151 
"God's  silly  people,"  194 
Green,  J.  R.,   cited,    20,  47,  65, 

73,  74,  122,  128,  129,  141 
Gunsaulus,  F.  W.,  cited,  120 
Hampden,  17 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  cited,  189 

Harte,  Bret,  cited,  147 

Hays,  Dr.  Geo.  P.,  cited,  195, 
197,  198 

Heath,  Richard,  cited,  138 

Heidelberg  catechism,  27 

Henry,  Matthew,  17 

Heresy,  hostile  to  Calvinism,  II 

Heron,  Prof.,  cited,  205 

Hillis,  Dr.  N.  D.,  cited,  152 

I }  [story  vs.  fiction,  60 

Hodge,  Prof.  A.  A.,  cited,  148 

Hoge,  Dr.  M.  D.,  cited,  209 

Hcdland,  Calvinists  of,  their  suf- 
ferings and  heroism,  75-77; 
by  what  inspired,  78  ;  leader, 
78 ;  morality,  79 ;  achieve- 
ments, 80-82;  intellectual  free- 
dom, 91  ;  contributions  to 
America,  120^  143 


Home,  the  Christian,  created  by 
the  Puritan,  73 ;  a  Scotch  Pres- 
byterian, 106-116 

Hospitals.  Presbyterian,  198 

Howe,  John,  17 

Hughes,  Archbishop,  cited,  139 

Huguenots,  character,  83-86, 
product  of  Calvinism,  86 ;  in 
America,  120,  143 

Hume,  cited,  125 

Huxley,  cited,  184 

Independent,  The,  cited,  yo 
Infants  dying  in  infancy,  39 
ironsides,  71 

James,  King,  cited,  I29 
Jansen,  87 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  cited,  143 
Joseph,  story   of,    illustration  0/ 

Predestination  and  Providence, 

161-175 

Kepler,   178 

Kerr,  Dr.  R.  P.,  cited,  209 
King's  Mountain,  battle  of,  147 
Knox,  chief  aim,  47;  character, 
59;    pupil  of  Calvin,  98,  130; 
creator  of  Scotland,  99  ;  effect 
of  his  teaching,  122,  123 
Kuyper,  Prof.  Abraham,  184 
Landrum,  Dr.,  cited,  149 
Larger  Catechism,  completed  be- 
fore Shorter,  26;  cited,  160 
Law  of  God,  Confession's  chapter 

on,  22 
Leadership,  national,  15 1 
Lecky,  cited,  63,  84,  184 
Ley  den,  siege  of,  76;  University 

of,  97 
Liberty,    civil,    saved    to     the 


330 


INDEX 


world  by  Puritans,  71 ;  fruit 
of  Calvinism,  122-137 

Lightfoot,  Bishop,  cited,  205 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  quoted,  210 

Lombroso,  cited,  185 

Longevity,  Puritan,  89 

Lord's  Prayer,  and  Calvinism,  45 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  cited,  47,  73,  104 

Luther,  25,  27,  59,  135 

Lutheran  approximation  to  Pres- 
byterianism,  207 

Lycurgus,  130 

Macaulay,  cited,  64,  66,  6^,  68, 

69,  70 
Mayflow^er,  135 
McCosh,  James,  cited,  209 
McFetridge,  N.  S.,   cited,  55,  85 
Mecklenburg  Assembly,  144 
Melville,  Andrew,  59,  122 
Methodist       approximation       to 

Presbyterianism,  207 
Methodist    Ecumenical    Confer- 
ence,   cited,     12  ;    Conference 
Wesleyan,   cited,   36;  Confer- 
ence, cited,  54 
Michelet,  Jules,  cited,  47 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  cited,  183 
Milton,  17;  cited,  18;  59 
Missions,  American  Presbyterian, 
213;  and  Calvinism,  100,  loi 
Mitchell,  Dr.  A.  F.,  cited,  23 
Mohammedans,  180 
Moody,  D.  L.,  cited,  152,  194 
Moore,  Dr.  T.  V.,  cited,  105,  180 
Moore,  Dr.  W.  W.,  cited,  209 
Morgan,  Gen.,  147 
Morley,  John,  cited,  56,  66,  94, 

102 
Morris,  Dr.  E.  D.,  cited,  177 
Motley,    cited,    55,    76.   78,    79, 
8i,  126,  133,  134 


Murray,  Regent,  59 

Napoleon,  53,  80 

New  England  Puritans,  charac- 
ter, 89,  90  ;  example  of  Cal- 
vinistic  spirit  of  free  inquiry, 

91 
Novelists  vs.  historians,  60 

Ogilvie,  J.  N.,  cited,  206,  207, 
209 

Ordination,  doctrinal  require- 
ments at,  14;  not  repeated  by 
Presbyterian  Church,  192 

Owen,  John,  17 

Pa  ton,  John  G.,  107 

Patterson,  Dr.  F,.  M.,  cited,  150 

Paxton,  Dr.  W.  M.,  quoted,  210 

Penn,  William,  81 

Pickens,  Gen.,  147 

Pilgrim  Fatheis,  91 

Pilgrim's  Progi-ess,  112 

Pitzer,  Dr.  A.  VV.,  171 

Plato,  33 

Polity,  Presbyterian  (see  under 
Presbyterian  Church). 

Port  Royal,  88 

Predestination,  in  Encyclope- 
dia Britannica,  62;  illustrated, 
162-176  ;  P.  and  Providence, 
157:  and  common  sense,  158, 
159  ;  and  fatalism,  166  ;  and 
free-agency,  167-173 ;  practical 
effects  of,  56,  178-182  (see 
Foreordination,  Piovidence). 

Presbyterian  Church,  name, 
205  ;  the  martyr  church,  11, 
54  ;  leading  representative  of 
Calvinism,  12;  doctrinal  church, 
14  ;  conditit)n  of  membership, 
14,  199;  of  ordination,  14; 
Scripture's  champion  and  mar- 


221 


INDEX 


tyr,  36;  confessional  revision 
»»>  37-39 ;  polity  of,  origin, 
205  ;  excellence,  139,  206;  in- 
fluence upon  character,  137, 
138;  upon  other  churches,  206- 
208;  served  as  national  train- 
ing school,  137  ;  furnished 
model  for  national  constitution, 
140-142;  P.  C.  and  American 
Independence,  143-148  ;  and 
education,  138,  148;  and  Sab- 
bath and  Family,  149;  and 
benevolence,  150 ;  and  national 
leadership,  151;  catholicity  of, 
189-215;  historic  church,  209- 
211;  number  of  adherents,  209; 
worldwide  range,  21 1;  power 
of  adaptation,  212;  missionary 
aggressiveness,  212,  213  ;  out- 
look, 214 
Preston,  Hon.  W.  C,  cited,  140 
Prime,  Dr.  S.  I.,  cited,  196 
Providence,  and  William  the 
Silent,  79 ;  presupposes  Pre- 
destination. 157-159  ;  all-em- 
bracing, 159,  160  ;  illustrated 
in  Joseph's  life,  161-165;  P. 
and  fatalism,  167  ;  and  free- 
agency,  167-172  ;  and  sin, 
173-177  ;  practical  effects  of 
doctrine,  177-182 
Puritans,  founders  of  common- 
wealths, 56;  by  what  inspired, 
56 ;  in  England,  name  and 
character,  47,  64.  65,  70;  spir- 
itual father,  71 ;  Puritan  army, 
66-69;  our  Puritan  heritage: 
liberty,  71 ;  Protestantism,  72; 
the  Christian  home,  73;  in 
America,  89,  90,  120,  143 


Ranke,  citedi  119 


"Rebellion,"  "The  Presbyte- 
rian," 145 

Reed,  Dr.  R.  C,  cited,  48 

Reformation,  the  Protestant,  led 
by  Calvinists,  19  ;  fought 
through  by  Calvinists,  72 

Reformed  Churches  of  Europe, 
212 

Religion  in  the  home,  see  Family 
Religion. 

Renan,  Ernest,  cited,  88 

Revision  of  Confession,  in  North- 
ern Church,  37,  38;  in  South- 
ern Church,  38 ;  not  a  question 
of  orthodoxy,  39 

Revivals,  and  Calvinism,  150 

Revolution,  of  1776,  "a  Presby- 
terian i^easure,"  143-148 

Roberts,  Dr.  W.  H,,  cited,  120, 205 

Romanism,  its  catechism,  27; 
where  best  studied,  98 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  cited,  95 

Rutherford,  Samuel,  29 

Sabbath,  in  the  home,   110-112; 
Presbyterian   emphasis    upon, 
149 
Saintsbury,  cited,  15 
Sanctification,  entire,  48 
Schaff,  cited,  18,  131,  134 
Scotch-Irish,  numbers  at    Revo- 
lution,   120  ;  part   in   Revolu- 
tion, 143,  144,  148 
Scotland,  Calvinism  in,  59;  where 
effects  of  Calvinism  best  st- id- 
led,    98  ;    the    Scotch    before 
Knox,  98;  the  transformation, 
99;  Scotch  missionaries,    lOO; 
moral    and    intellectual     pre- 
eminence, 103 ;  religious  home 
life,     106-116;    S.    and   Pres. 
Church  government,  141 


333 


xNDEX 


Selden,  John,  28 
Shakespeare,  15 

Shorter    Catechism,    Assem- 
bly's  last  and  best  work,  26; 
definition    of    God,    30 ;    first 
question    strikes     keynote    of 
Calvinism,      45  ;       safeguard 
against   error,    49  ;  effect     on 
Scottish    peasantry,     loi ;    in 
the  home,  no;  in  the  Revolu- 
tion, 148,  cited,  45,  159,  161 
Smiles,  Samuel,  cited,  85,  86,  91 
Smith,  Goldwin,  cited,  66 
Solon,  130 

Sovereignty,     Divine,    44;     and 
William  the  Silent,   78;    illus- 
trated,  157-182 
Spectator,  London,  cited,  206 
Speer,  R.  E.,  cited,  213 
Spencer,  Herbert,  cited,  184 
Standards,       see       Westminster 

Standards. 
Stanley,  Dean,  cited,  19 
Stanley,  Henry  M.,  cited,  100 
Stephen,  Sir  James,  cited,  128 
Strickler,  Dr.  G.  B.,  cited,  27 
Subscription  formula,  14 

Taine,  cited,  47,  65,  68,  69,  153 
Ten  Commandments,  catechisms' 

exposition  of,  22,  49 
Thompson,  Dr.  R.  E.,  cited,  146, 

208 
Tilghman,  Chief  Justice,  cited,  142 
Twisse,  Dr.  William,  17 


Ursinus,  25 


Walpole,  Horace,  cited,  146 

Washington,  George,  cited,  144 

Watts,  Isaac,  17 

Westminster  Assembly,  name 
and  era,  15;  personnel,  16; 
estimates  of,  18,  19;  back- 
ground, 19;  task,  21;  first 
characteristic,  thoroughness, 
24-28;  advantages  and  train- 
ing, 24,  25 ;  second  character- 
istic, prayeriulness,  18-31; 
third  characteristic,  loyalty  to 
Scripture,  32-36 

Westminster  Standards,  doc 
trinal,  13;  and  church  mem- 
bership, 14;  and  office-bearers, 
14;  formula  of  subscription  to, 
14;  name  and  era  of  formula- 
tion, 15;  ethical  quality,  21 ; 
spiritual  vitality,  22;  use  and 
function,  21,  23;  labor  and 
prayer  bestowed  upon,  24-3 1; 
scripturalness,  32-36;  and  phi- 
losophy, 33;  hard  sayings  in, 
34;  why  assaulted,  35,  36; 
Calvinism  of,  unimpaired  by 
past  or  proposed  revision,  37, 
38.  (See  Catechisms,  Shorter, 
Larger;  Confession.) 

William  the  Silent  and  Calvin- 
ism, 78;  father  of  religious 
liberty,  81 

W^ilson,  Dr.  S.  Law,  cited,  61 

Witherspoon,  Dr.  John,  144 


Young  Men's  Christian  Associa 
tion,  195 


223 


A- 


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